Pierre de Meuron

R my Zaugg (1943-2005) was an internationally renowned artist who lived and worked in Basel and Mulhouse. He saw himself as a painter, yet he would not limit himself solely to the production of images. Rather, from his painterly practice he generated general assumptions for a processual conception of the work that enabled him to view spatial, architectural, and urban contexts in new, unfamiliar ways. Accordingly, the perceiving human being as a member of society was always at the center of his considerations - all his aesthetic assumptions led to the emancipatory idea of the becoming subject. In addition to his extensive painterly and written oeuvre, it is therefore his activities and projects for and in public space that are essential for understanding Zaugg's particular artistic position. The book is dedicated to this socially relevant complex of topics, documenting all of the artist's respective realized and unrealized projects, with a particular focus on the following key aspects of his work: museum architecture (here in particular his collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron), exhibitions with works by other artists, art in public spaces as well as his preoccupation.

Designing a new national map of urban topography for Switzerland. The classic volume Switzerland. An Urban Portrait was published in three languages by Birkhäuser Verlag in 2005 and has lost none of its relevance to this day. The result of several years of research by ETH Studio Basel, this three-volume work contains explorations of the multiple layers and facets of Swiss towns and cities by renowned architects Roger Diener, Jacques Herzog, Marcel Meili, Pierre de Meuron, and Christian Schmid, as well as possible and/or desirable scenarios for the future development of country’s main cities and its Alpine region. It also includes maps of urban topography. Leading Swiss architects examine Switzerland’s built environment An important contribution to the discussion of how Switzerland might look in the future Visionary urban topographies in a globalized world