Schweizerisches Architekurmuseum, April 16th – July 17th 2011

Sitterviadukt der Südostbahn, 1910

Infrastructure buildings have shaped the image of Switzerland; they are of central significance in creating a kind of cohesion throughout the entire country. Inscribed in the landscape with the ambition of architecture the Albula Railway, Susten Pass or bridges by Hans-Ulrich Grubenmann & Robert Moser, Robert Maillart, Alexandre Sarrasin and Christian Menn are considered as masterpieces of civil engineering.
At the same time there are also countless other such structures – bridges, footbridges, tunnels, retaining walls, roads – that are hardly ever noticed and at most are only briefly perceived in passing. The photographs presented in this exhibition are the result of various joint forays made by the engineer Jürg Conzett and the photographer Martin Linsi throughout Switzerland. From the urban agglomeration areas around Basel and Zurich the journey leads through Graubünden, over the Susten Pass and finally into the cantons of Ticino and Wallis. Deliberately visited along the way are structures ranging from the incunabula of civil engineering to unspectacular facilities. The subjective viewpoint of a prominent engineer was decisive in the selection of works and definitive examples, which in any case served as inspiration for his own work. In this respect photos of Conzettʼs own bridges are provided alongside his historical sources of inspiration. Originally presented in Venice the exhibition has been adapted by S AM Swiss Architecture Museum to its own exhibition space in Basel.