Suggested architecture tour routes
From the Jura & Three Lakes region to Basel
The watchmaking industry of the Jura Arc, which came into being at the end of the 19th century, brought wealth and prosperity to the entire region. Concerns for the health and safety of these workers gave rise to a style of urban planning that can be visited at Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds, which now figure on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The middle classes who emerged from the watchmaking industry allowed Charles Edouard Jeanneret, who later adopted the name of Le Corbusier, to build his first projects. And as icing on the cake, Notre-Dame du Haut, a sculptural masterpiece, stands only a few kilometers away, on the other side of the Jura. In a setting such as this, at the farthermost tip of the Jura Arc, the industrial town of Basel became, from the nineties on, a world-renowned laboratory for contemporary architecture.
Day of arrival
- Arrival in Switzerland
- Transfer by train to La Chaux-de-Fonds
- Art nouveau trail in La Chaux-de-Fonds
- Tour around the Villa Schwob (Le Corbusier)
- Journey by train from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Laufen
- Visit to the Ricola warehouse (Herzog & de Meuron)
- Overnight stay, for example at Hotel Teufelhof in Basel
Day 1: Basel
- 08:00 Walk through the old town, incl. a visit to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) building (Mario Botta)
- 09:00 Breakfast at the Volkshaus Basel venue
- 10:30 Visit to the Kunstmuseum Basel (Christ & Gantenbein)
- 12:00 Visit to the Fondation Beyeler (Renzo Piano) followed by lunch there
- 15:00 Visit to the Novartis Campus (Diener & Diener and Sanaa)
- 16:30 Visit to the Messe Basel New Hall (Herzog & de Meuron)
- Overnight stay at the Hyperion Hotel Basel
Day 2: Basel
- 07:00 Breakfast at the Hyperion Hotel Basel
- 09:00 Visit to the Museum Tinguely (Mario Botta)
- 11:30 Short stop at the Dreispitz-Areal
- 12:30 Lunch followed by a visit to the Schaulager Museum, Münchenstein
- 15:00 Visit to the Vitra Campus, Weil am Rhein
- Departure at your leisure
Focus on high-rise buildings in Zurich
The urban population of Switzerland is growing. New solutions have emerged to maximize use of available space and to limit costs. At the present moment, Zürich is a town with extremely interesting experiments in housing construction. Such is its excellence in this area, that it is a reference point internationally. Housing competitions have allowed residential districts to produce innovations in building styles with typologies which have overturned conventional approaches to housing.
Day of arrival
- Arrival in Zurich
- Check-in at the 25hrs Hotel Zurich Langstrasse incl. late breakfast
- 11:00 City tour featuring a visit to various high-rise buildings: Kalkbreite housing (Siegrist Müller), the Freitag Tower, Toni-Areal (EM2N), Zurich University of Teacher Education (Max Dudler)
- 13:00 Visit to the Le Corbusier Pavilion and a light lunch by the lake
- 14:30 Visit to the Swiss National Museum (Christ & Gantenbein)
- 16:30 Coffee and cake and a visit to the Prime Tower (Gigon/Gruyer)
From the Alps heading south
The Alps cover more than 60% of Switzerland. The simplicity and economy of the resources used in Alpine vernacular architecture have inspired an entire new generation of architects at the forefront of contemporary Swiss architecture. This route covers works where contextual architecture responds to its surrounding landscape.