Beton

Opening: 19/11/2021, 7 PM

Vilified by some, adored by others – one thing is certain: concrete is everywhere. But what do we actually talk about when we talk about this divisive material? From fluid to solid, hidden to exposed, component to monolith – concrete is something with many forms and transformations, as many associations as applications.

A coproduction by S AM, gta Archiv / ETH Zürich, Archives de la construction moderne / EPF Lausanne, Archivio del Moderno dell’Academia di Architettura / USI

Photo: The “Zementhalle” by Hans Leuzinger (architect) and Robert Maillart at the 1939 Swiss National Exhibition in Zurich, courtesy ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv

Mock-Up

In architecture, a ‘mock-up’ refers to a demonstration model that reproduces a fragment of a building in full size, using the same materials as the eventual finished product. These models help to better understand the detailing of a building before actual construction begins. But what if mock-ups are not understood as merely by-products of architecture, but as artefacts in their own right, in possession of an experimental or even poetic potential that goes beyond their purely technical function? 

Image 1: Atelier Abraha Achermann, Erlenmatt Ost, Basel, 2018 © David K. Ross
Image 2: Material tests with carpet tiles, baubüro in-situ / Zirkular, 2021
Image 3: Tambacounda Mock-Up, Manuel Herz, Senegal, 2018. Photo: Magueye Ba
Image 4: Performative mock-up, Newrope. Photo: Elias Knecht

Access for All: São Paulo’s Architectural Infrastructures

An exhibition by the Architecture Museum of the TU Munich adapted and expanded by S AM together with the Institute of Architecture FHNW. 

This exhibition presents architecture and infrastructural projects in São Paulo from the 1950s to today, focussing on how architecture interweaves with the city and how these structures provide safe and inclusive spaces of encounter through various publicly accessible functions. An exhibition by the Architekturmuseum der TU München, adapted and expanded by the S AM together with the Institute of Architecture FHNW.

Admission: Pay what you wish!

Basel 2050

What will Basel look like in 30 years? The forum for urban development ‘Basel 2050’ will examine this question by presenting and putting up for discussion various ideas for preserving and developing building culture as well as spaces for living.

A coproduction of S AM and the Bureau for Urban Development and Architecture of the Canton Basel-City Construction and Transport Department.

Under the Radar

extended until 30/8/2020
Much of the work of architecture takes place before and after the actual act of construction, as architects probe the conditions governing the territories in which they are intervening. In a process similar to that of investigative journalism, they collect pieces of evidence, analyse them and synthesise them into a narrative.

35 Years of S AM

Vernissage: 14 October 2019, 7 PM
Auction: 26 October 2019, 11 AM

The S AM Swiss Architecture Museum is celebrating its 35^thbirthday this year. This retrospective traces the development of the museum, bringing together publications, posters by Claudiabasel and artefacts from the over 170 exhibitions put on by the institution to date. The archival materials will be complemented by a collection of architectural drawings, models and other ephemera gifted to the museum by its members and supporters for this occasion. At the end of the exhibition, these “birthday gifts” will be sold in an auction benefitting the museum.

Swim City

25/5/-29/9/2019
Opening: 24/5/2019, 7 pm

‘Swim City’ is the first exhibition to draw attention to a particular contemporary phenomenon in urban space: river swimming as a mass movement. Swiss cities have played a pioneering role in the development of this activity in the last few decades, gradually making the river accessible as a natural public space in the built environment.

Dichtelust - Forms of Urban Coexistence in Switzerland

Developed with support from the Basel City Cantonal Department of Construction and Transport.

In Switzerland, the concept of density has noticeably negative connotations. This negative image has to be corrected. The exhibition will demonstrate what density actually means, namely sensible utilisation of buildable territory. 

Portrait of a Landscape

Opening: 06/07/2018, 7PM

Pierre-Philippe Hofmann is a visual artist from Brussels with Swiss roots. He has crossed Switzerland along ten axes – from the outermost borders to the geographical centre: Älggi Alp in the canton Obwalden.

(Foto: © swisstopo)
 

in Land aus Land. Swiss Architects Abroad

Opening: 30/06/2017, 7 PM

Swiss architects trying their luck abroad is not a new phenomenon, but Swiss architecture’s definitive international breakthrough was facili- tated by Ticino’s Tendenza and German-speaking Switzerland’s minimalism. In this exhibition, S AM presents selected examples of built and planned projects from the past 10 years. 

Forum Basel

Forum Basel. Urban spaces for communal living 
Opening: 19.05.2017, 7PM

From 20 May to 18 June, S AM abolishes its entrance fee and provides a non-commercial space to the people of Basel to work, play, read, eat, rest and more.

Schweizweit

In co-operation with 162 architectural practices from all regions of the country the S AM has created a visual atlas of current Swiss architecture. Switzerland is transported into the museum via large-format projections. The exhibition shows the commonalities and differences in the themes, content and formal strategies that Swiss architects focus on today.

Imagine la Suisse

In autumn 2016, S AM closes its doors for conversion work. However, instead of just being closed during this period, it is coming out onto the street. The windows facing Steinenberg shall become projection screens, on which the architects and curators Mateja Vehovar and Stefan Jauslin are to present their interpretation of Swiss architecture in a video installation.

Schulhausbauten in Basel

Die in grosser Zahl im ausgehenen 19. Jahrhundert in den neuen Stadtrandquartieren erbauten Schulhäuser nehmen im Plan der Stadt Basel durchwegs eine prominente Stellung ein. Auch nach dem 2. Weltkrieg suchten die Stadtplaner die Schulbauten als Quartierzentren in den neuen Wohngebieten zu verankern. Wohnraumentwicklung und Schulhausplanung sind städtebaulich nicht voneinander zu trennen – auch dies eine der wichtigen Erkenntnisse aus der hier vorgestellten Schulhausstudie.

André M. Studer. On the measure of things

Based on original documents, this 2016 summer exhibition at S AM provides the first general overview of the oeuvre of Swiss architect André M. Studer, who died in 2007.

Spatial Positions 11. This was Tomorrow: Reinventing Architecture 1953-1978

The S AM presents ‘This Was Tomorrow’ an exhibition by the Drawing Matter collection about architectural imagination, and the power, processes and poetics of creation and invention.

Opening: 12.03.2016, 7 pm

Spatial Positions 10: The Sound of Architecture

On the occasion of the new music festival ZeitRäume, S AM presents an exhibition dedicated to the sound of spaces.

Bernard Tschumi. Architecture: Concept & Notation

Bernard Tschumi, born in Lausanne in 1944, has influenced contemporary architectural discourse significantly over the past decades, as an architect and as an architectural theorist. For the first time in Switzerland, S AM provides a comprehensive insight into his work.

Spatial Positions 9 «Aristide Antonas. Protocols of Athens»

In continuation of the exhibition series "Spatial Positions", which was initiated in 2013 and focuses on works by contemporary architects and artists at the boundary of the architectural discipline, this exhibition addresses the oeuvre of the Greek architect and philosopher Aristide Antonas (b. 1963, Athens).

Constructing Text. Swiss Architecture Under Discussion

The intention of the exhibition "Architecture and text" is to use selected examples to clarify how architecture can be spoken and written about.

Spatial Positions 8: Cooperations. Diener & Diener, Martin Steinmann / Josef Felix Müller; Peter Märkli / Josephsohn

Fritz Haller. Architect and Researcher

With this exhibition, S AM provides an overview, the first of its kind, over Fritz Haller's most important structures and projects – from the late 1940s to the late 1990s.

Orientations. Young Swiss Architects

In the year 2014, the Swiss Architecture Museum S AM celebrates its 30th anniversary. The anniversary year gets underway with the exhibition «Orientations. Young Swiss Architects», which is curated by Hubertus Adam, director of S AM, and which presents six positions within contemporary Swiss architecture: architects who are more-or-less in their thirties.

Lookout. Architecture with a view

SPATIAL POSITIONS 6 - Lina Bo Bardi: Together

Content available on 28th of February.

SPATIAL POSITIONS 5 - The Land Workshop

SPATIAL POSITIONS 4 - Space+Matter: Life+Place

SPATIAL POSITIONS 3 - WOVEN WALL

SPATIAL POSITIONS 2 - Im Würgegriff der Kunst

Building Images. Photographie Focusing on Swiss Architecture

«BUILDING IMAGES» is conceived as a panorama of the last 25 years of Swiss architecture. Buildings which have contributed to the worldwide success of
Swiss construction are presented – not by means of plans and models, but solely via the medium of photography.

Alexander Brodsky. Architect between art and the real world

A photographic exhibition on Brodsky’s most important buildings will be held at
 the S AM Swiss Architecture museum in course of the international festival
 Culturescapes Moscow 2012. The photographs were taken by Yuri Palmin, a renowned
 Russian architecture photographer, who has been documenting Brodsky’s work for
quite some time. 

City Inc. – Bata’s Corporate Towns

The exhibition not only offers insights into the respective local complexities and contradictions of life in a Bata City as impacted by the dynamic changes of the 20th century, but also investigates the uncertain future of these places under the influence of post-industrial transformation.

Constructing Community. The First Goetheanum in Photos and Documents

The exhibition begins with a photograph of the ruins after the fire in 1922 and ends with the design sketches of the project that had been initially conceived beginning in 1911–and then ultimately failed—in Munich and afterwards in 1913 was transferred to Dornach.

The Object of Zionism. Architecture of Statehood in Israel

The exhibition in the Swiss Architecture Museum is based on the concept of an image and plan archive featuring various aspects of the architecture and spatial planning of Israel between 1948 and 1973.

Landscape and structures

A personal inventory by Jürg Conzett, photographed by Martin Linsi / Swiss contribution to the 12th International Architecture Exhibition of Venice.

This exhibition showcases civil engineering structures which stand out by virtue of their special relationship with the landscape. Civil engineering structures comprise bridges, footbridges, tunnels, retaining walls, passageways, i.e. structures which serve as transport routes.

In space and marked by time. Anna Viebrock – stage design as architecture

Based on sixteen selected stage sets – a number of which were created for Basel – the exhibition makes Viebrock’s developmental process visible: from the photographs that serve as the initial source of inspiration to the finished stage set.

RICHARD NEUTRA BUILDINGS AND PROJECTS 1960–1970 IN SWITZERLAND

Preparation for the exhibition has led to new basic research that will serve as the foundation for a new chapter in European architecture history: plans, drawings and further materials from the Richard Neutra estate in Los Angeles not only document the Swiss oeuvre of the architect, but also make his way of working, his relationships to his clients and his understanding of architec- ture manifest.

Environments and Counter Environments: Experimental Media in ‘Italy: The New Domestic Landscape’, MoMA 1972

As part of the exhibition, original documents and multimedia projections will be shown that were presented in 1972 in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) by the curator Emilio Ambasz. With its own means of systematization the exhibition paid homage to the dynamic and politically complex context of Italian design and architecture of the 1960s and early 1970s.

MetroBasel Comic

Zur Basler Museumsnacht (22.01.2010) möchte das S AM Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum, die Idee MetroBasel, die in gleichnamigem Comic vom ETH Studio Basel visualisiert wurde einer breiten Öffentlichkeit zugänglich machen. In der Publikation werden die Kernstadt Basels sowie die umliegenden Schweizer, Deutschen und Französischen Gebiete portraitiert und untersucht, sowie städtebauliche Potentiale und Visionen skizziert.

»HIER UND DIE WELT« Architektur aus der Region Rhône-Alpes und der Romandie

Zehn Architekturbüros, dreissig aktuelle Projekte, klare Stellungnahmen und eine neue Ästhetik. Die Positionen erweisen sich eher als generationenbedingt denn als identitätsbezogen, es sind aber durchaus persönliche und innere Landschaften erkennbar. Alle beobachten die Welt aufmerksam, möchten zu einem besseren Leben beitragen und sind sich ihres Einflusses und ihrer Verantwortung bewusst.
​Wir dürfen hoffen.

»THE WORLD OF MADELON VRIESENDORP« Paintings, Postcards, Objects, Games 1967 - Today

SKYSCRAPERS have sex and are caught in flagrant dèlit. Between a pink torso and a buffed-up American GI, a nun is spitting fire. 
Welcome to the The World of Madelon Vriesendorp, an exhibition that for the first time ever, brings together the London based, Dutch-born artist’s wildly diverse practices from the past forty years.

»BALKANOLOGY« New Architecture and Urban Phenomena in South Eastern Europe

The exhibition uses examples from projects in Belgrade, Zagreb, Kotor, Prishtina and Tirana to illustrate the way architects, artists, urbanists and activists are dealing with these rapid new transformation processes. The outstanding yet hardly known buildings of socialist modernism in Yugoslavia are compared and contrasted with contemporary architecture. 

RE-SAMPLING ORNAMENT

Exactly 100 years after Adolf Loos wrote Ornament and Crime, a manifesto that effectively relegated ornament in architecture to the peripheries of the discourse, “Re-sampling Ornament” takes a first step towards tracing its re-emergence. 

ARCH/SCAPES Negotiating Architecture and Landscape

ARCH/SCAPES focuses upon 15 new architecture within the heterogeneous cultural landscape of Switzerland, the urban and peri-urban areas, the village typologies of the alpine landscapes and the burgeoning agglomeration. Switzerland’s landscapes – in particular the rural and alpine typologies – are considered public terrain, and a precious asset.

PANCHO GUEDES, AN ALTERNATIVE MODERNIST

A quarter of a century after he has been shown at the Architectural Association, in London, Pancho Guedes is now revisited at the S AM, Swiss Architecture Museum, in what can be regarded as the first critical and curatorial approach to the eccentric oeuvre that this architect realised in Africa during the Fifties and Sixties. 

INSTANT URBANISM. TRACING THE THEORIES OF THE SITUATIONISTS IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN

First taking a historical sweep through the field of architecture contemporary to the Situationists, the exhibition then assembles essential projects in architecture of the present day that could be seen to put into practice that which the Situationists developed as radical urban critique and theory. 

UNAUFGERÄUMT / AS FOUND

UNAUFGERÄUMT / AS FOUND examines architectural designs and strategies for found situations and existing buildings. A collection of recent projects from very different
cultural contexts reveal how, with minimal means and resources, the most unlikely buildings and urban territories can be transformed and extended for entirely new uses.

Zaha Hadid Architecture - Projects and Built Work

Novartis Campus - Forum 3

Junge Schweizer Architektur - Jeune architecture suisse

Von Büchern und Bäumen

Im Geschmack der Zeit

Klangräume

rückwärts - vorwärts

Peter Heman 1919-2001. Architektur Photographie

Junge Schweizer Architektur, Jeune architecture suisse, Giovane architettura svizzera, Arquitectura suiza joven

9=12. Neues Wohnen in Wien

John Soane und die Schweizer Holzbrücken

Carte Blanche: sab Architekten laden ein Urs Füssler. Berliner Projekte

Raum sichten. Miriam Bäckström, Claudio Moser, Heidi Specker und Edwin Zwakman photographierten das Architekturmuseum

Architectour de Suisse. 26 Filme zur Architektur der Schweiz

Nachkriegsmoderne Schweiz. Architektur von Werner Frey, Franz Füeg, Jacques Schader und Jakob Zweifel

Melchior Berri 1801 – 1854. Architekt des Klassizismus

Marcel Meili, Markus Peter Architekten. Modelle & Fotographien 1987 - 2001

Birds Portchmouth Russum. Carte Blanche: Osolin & Plüss laden ein

Zur Qualität des Mittelmasses. Die Baumgartner Häuser in Basel

Peter Märkli. Suche nach Ausdruck

Arbeitsmodelle. Von El Lissitzky bis Rem Koolhaas. Aus dem Entwurfskurs von Marianne Burkhalter & Christian Sumi, EPF Lausanne 1999

Raum, Farbe und Klarheit. Luis Barragán photographiert von René Burri

Aktuelles Ereignis: Wettbewerb Breite Zentrum Basel

Basler Projekte II. Bilder und Legenden. Buol & Zünd, Jessen + Vollenweider

Neues Bauen in den Alpen

Junge Basler Architekturbüros III. Carmen Quade, sab Architekten, Andreas Stöcklin

Bräuning, Leu, Dürig. Ein Basler Architekturbüro 1922-78

Rudolf Schwarz 1897-1961. Architekt einer anderen Moderne

Performance-Index 1999. Internationale Performances in den Räumen des Architekturmuseums

Abstimmen über Architektur. Schweizer Plakate

Mart Stam (1899 - 1986). Architekt - Visionär – Gestalter

il Kalender D'architecture im Museum gestaltet von Stauffenegger + Stutz

Aktuelles Ereignis: Wettbewerb Erweiterung der BIZ, Basel

Fehling + Gogel. Ein Berliner Architekturbüro 1953-1990

Le regard sur le lieu. Arbeiten des Lehrstuhls Arduino Cantafora, EPF Lausanne

Junge Basler Architekturbüros II. Christian Dill, Osolin & Plüss, Luca Selva und Jean-Pierre Wymann

Basler Projekte I. Diener & Diener, August Künzel. Centralbahnplatz - Von der Drehscheibe zum Arboretum

Architektur lernen? 25 Jahre Abteilung Architektur an der IBB, Muttenz

Das Italien Jakob Burckhardts. Architekturphotographie aus seiner Sammlung heute gesehen von Paolo Rosselli

Facetten - Bauen in der Schweiz aus der Dia-Sammlung von Rene Furer

Neues Bauen in den Alpen

Hans Bernoulli. Skizzenbücher

Junge Basler Architekturbüros I

Hermann Czech

Lomographie in der Stadt

Wiel Arets

Monumento. Annäherung an ein Denkmal

Ernst Mumenthaler und Otto Meier

Rafael Moneo. Neue Bauten und Projekte

William Lescase

Haus-Rucker-Co

Mythos Wolkenkratzer

Die Bata-Kolonie in Möhlin

Architektur im Unterricht

Die Moderne in Basel. Architekturgeschichte im Museum

Livio Vacchini

Werkstattbericht aus Barcelona: para el'92

Classen / Vorfeld. Architektur der 50er Jahre in Köln

Die Antoniuskirche von Karl Moser

Aktuelles Ereignis: Abstimmung Schwarzpark

Hans Brechbühler

Ort und Platz: Stadträumliche Analysen

Carlo Mollino baut in den Bergen

Architektur für die Nacht. Kino-Architektur

Hannes Meyer. Zurück in Basel

Aktuelles Ereignis: Bedroht: Das Haus für Alleinstehende Frauen

Christian Vogt: Innenräume

Otto Senn. Form als Raum

2x Bauhaus in Wien. Franz Singer / Friedel Dicker

Die Wohnung im Fenster / Fenêtres habitées

Frank O. Gehry

Aktuelles Ereignis: Heinz Hossdorf für Sevilla

Paul Nelson 1895 – 1979

SAFFA 1928, 1958 ... und heute

Carl May. Korkmodelle

Herzog & de Meuron. Architektur Denkform

Aktuelles Ereignis: Eisbahnhaus Davos

Baruth und Steinke. Mit Architektur Farbe bekennen

cHUbE/cHrOME Robert Slutzky

Aktuelles Ereignis: Die Räume des Antikenmuseums

O.M.A. Rem Koolhaas

Gunnar Asplund 1885 – 1940

Architektur aus Papier

Aktuelles Ereignis: Wettbewerb Picassoplatz

Santiago Calatrava. Neuere Arbeiten

Paolo Rosselli: Photographische Notizen Engadin

Le Corbusier und Raoul la Roche

Hans Hofmann

Aktuelles Ereignis: Wettbewerb Lugano Sammlung Thyssen Bornemisza

Basler Architekturzeichnungen 1850 – 1920

Rudolf Maeglin: Baustellenbilder 1892 – 1920

Hans Wittwer 1894 – 1952

Zelte

Aktuelles Ereignis: Gartenpavillon Eden

Bernd und Hilla Becher

Otto Rudolf Salvisberg

Lux Guyer

Architekturspielsachen

Luigi Snozzi

Jean Prouvé

Geschichte eines modernen Hauses in Basel.

CHRISTO "Wrapped floors"