Walks

Promenades: Photography and Architecture has a dual nature: it is a visual exploration of the work of the renowned Swiss firm Bauart Architects and Urbanists and an artistic investigation of the relationship between architecture and photography. Bauart have commissioned six photographers working in the fields of landscape and architecture, and invited another ten people to contribute selfies, to document a selection of their realized designs throughout Switzerland. Each of them represents a personal, wide-angled view of the respective project, drawing on the rich legacy of nearly two centuries of architectural photography. Markus Jakob’s essay contextualizes the relationship between photography and architecture with Bauart’s work and vision. Bauart’s philosophy reaches far beyond superficial aesthetic quality. Over the course of three decades, their approach has always been a very comprehensive one, considering aspects of ecology, urban context, and social questions more generally. The range of their projects includes prefabricated structures and entire new neighborhoods, government and office buildings, schools and cultural buildings, housing, as well a low-cost and mobile structures. Often, a concrete design is just the ultimate step in a lengthy development process in which Bauart has participated from the outset.