What is Baukultur?

The designed living environment surrounds us wherever we may currently be. Hence, high-quality Baukultur is important for a good life.

Baukultur sees the entire designed living environment as a coherent whole,

from existing buildings to contemporary design,
from small handcrafted details to buildings and open spaces to large-scale infrastructures, and
from the planning process through construction and operation to reuse.

What is and is not high-quality Baukultur is always open to discussion. In Switzerland and in Europe, there are many initiatives to improve the quality of our designed living environment.

The Swiss Baukultur Round Table first published its Manifesto on Baukultur in 2011. The Manifesto is a fundamental document for a holistic understanding of Baukultur. It served as the initial spark for the new cultural and political field of Baukultur in Switzerland.

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By initiating the Davos Declaration, Switzerland assumed a leading role in the European discourse on Baukultur. The declaration adopted by the European Ministers of Culture in 2018 reminds us that building is culture and creates space for culture.

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At the national level, in 2020 the Swiss Federal Council ratified the Interdepartmental Strategy for the Promotion of Baukultur. The strategy consolidates the federal government’s Baukultur activities for the first time and aims to sustainably promote high-quality Baukultur.

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Since 2021, the Davos Baukultur Quality System has for the first time provided an assessment method for high-quality Baukultur, placing social, cultural and emotional criteria on equal footing with more common technical, environmental and economic criteria. The eight criteria of governance, functionality, environment, economy, diversity, context, sense of place and beauty establish the basis for the “Baukultur Switzerland” web platform’s “Case Studies” module.

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In 2021, the Council of the European Union adopted the “Council conclusions on culture, high-quality architecture and built environment as key elements of the New European Bauhaus”. In it, the EU Council explicitly supports the eight quality criteria defined in the Davos Baukultur Quality System.

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The Davos Baukultur Alliance, founded in 2023, advocates at the global level for a quality-oriented approach to the design, construction and management of buildings, infrastructure, public spaces and landscapes. Many partners play a role in the Alliance, including national governments, international organisations, businesses and civil society actors. The Alliance bases its efforts on the goals, values and principles of the Davos Declaration and the Davos Baukultur Quality System.

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The Baukultur Strategy pools the activities of the central Federal Administration in the field of Baukultur. The 2024-2027 Action Plan sets out ten objectives and the corresponding measures for the promotion of Baukultur in the 2024 to 2027 legislative period. (pdf in German)

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