Baukultur
Switzerland
The sustainable design of our built environment concerns us all. That is why the SIA is inviting all those interested in Baukultur to vote for their favourites from the 169 submissions. Online voting is open until 21 May 2024. The winner of the Public Award will be announced at the award ceremony on 23 May in Winterthur.
Your opinion counts - vote for your favourite projects now: prixsia.ch/go/vote
On 19 March 2024 in Zurich, the Swiss Baukultur Round Table discussed how contemporary job profiles, attractive working conditions and educational opportunities in schools and universities can counteract the shortage of skilled workers. Oliver Martin, Head of the Baukultur Section at the Federal Office of Culture, presented the new Baukultur Action Plan, the status of the Cultural Message 2025-28 and the current fields of action of the Davos Baukultur Alliance. The round table, which was hosted by bauenschweiz this time, also discussed the further development of baukulturswitzerland.ch and the competition system as a living cultural heritage. The meeting was rounded off with a guided tour of the south wing of Zurich main station organised by SBB.
On 1 March 2024, the Federal Council proposed to Parliament that Baukultur be enshrined in law as part of the Cultural Message 2025-28. Specifically, this concerns the Confederation's role model function in its own buildings and other spatially effective activities. It also concerns existing financial aid within the framework of cultural promotion. The Federal Council's proposal to include high Baukultur in Art. 17b and 17c of the Federal Act on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage via the 2025-2028 Cultural Message is a great success for Baukultur and the Swiss Baukultur Round Table.
The leading organisations in the field of Baukultur welcome the present draft of the Cultural Message 2025–28. A high level of Baukultur is the key to sustainably designing our living environment. Its promotion and incorporation into law are therefore urgent and appropriate.
The following organisations support this basic position:
Caspar Schärer, Generalsekretär des Bundes Schweizer Architektinnen und Architekten, wies darauf hin, dass Lärm nicht als Rekurs- und Blockademittel gegen eine qualitätsvolle Innenentwicklung missbraucht werden dürfte. Damian Jerjen, Direktor von EspaceSuisse, machte auf Unterschiede bei der Lärmbekämpfung in der West- und Deutschschweiz aufmerksam.
Weitere Themen des Runden Tischs waren die Davos Baukultur Alliance, die nächste Kulturbotschaft, der neue Aktionsplan Baukultur, die gesetzliche Verankerung von Baukultur, die Klimaoffensive Baukultur sowie die Denkmaltage 2023, die im September zu Entdeckungen in der ganzen Schweiz einladen, dieses Jahr unter dem Motto «Reparieren und Wiederverwenden».
The private sector has great influence on our designed living environment.
The special publication «Erfolgsfaktor Baukultur» (“Baukultur as success factor”), released on 30 September 2022, examines projects by institutional investors: traditional architecture in place of a shuttered cinema in the Old City of Berne, a centre of Alpine culinary heritage housed in a converted monastery in Stans, the new corporate headquarters of the Baloise insurance group in Basel, and the transformation of the former paper mill in Cham. The reflections revolve around the eight criteria of the Davos Baukultur Quality System: governance, functionality, environment, economy, diversity, context, sense of place, and beauty.
«Erfolgsfaktor Baukultur» (“Baukultur as success factor”)
In the run-up to the second conference of European ministers of culture on Baukultur 2023 in Davos, the Federal Working Group Baukultur and the Swiss Baukultur Round Table met as national stakeholders for a joint workshop in Bern on 16 June 2022.