Jürg Conzett, Martin Linsi, and Lydia Conzett-Gehring: Landscape and Structures

The exhibition Landscape and Structures - A personal inventory by Jürg Conzett, photographed by Martin Linsi with 22 models by Lydia Conzett-Gehring unfolds through numerous themed sections occupying the three floors of the Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio of the Academy of Architecture-USI, and presenting a rich repertoire of infrastructure from around Switzerland, selected over the years by the well-known structural engineer Jürg Conzett and documented together with photographer Martin Linsi.

All the featured works stand out by virtue of the strong bond they have established with the landscape around them. They comprise bridges, footbridges, tunnels, retaining walls and passageways, all structures that serve the purposes of communication and connection designed and built from the end of the 18th century until today from prominent personalities of the great Swiss engineering-construction tradition, from Karl Etzel to Robert Maillart, from Alexandre Sarrasin to Rino Tami and to the Conzett Bronzini Partner AG office of Chur. Interest is mainly focused on engineering works with landscape design aspirations, while at the same time evoking aesthetic-architectural reflections in those who observe them. The exhibition testifies to the constructions that have held a particular significance in Jürg Conzett’s professional training and career. In this sense the selection of works on display is subjective, making no claims to drawing up an exhaustive list of the panorama of Swiss infrastructure.

Originally conceived for the Swiss Pavilion at the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale, from 2010 to today the exhibition has gradually been expanded to include new subjects and enriched with videos and a series of 22 refined wooden models made by Lydia Conzett- Gehring, or a scaled reproductions of bridges designed or built by Jürg Conzett together with Gianfranco Bronzini during their career as structural engineers. The 160 black and white large-scale photographs on display in the exhibition are the result of a series of excursions through Switzerland carried out by Jürg Conzett and Martin Linsi during the year 2010.The exhibition is completed by a rich consultable portfolio containing technical documents, newsletters and descriptive and scientific articles dedicated to the objects on display, systematically put together by Jürg Conzett.

The practice of using local materials and traditional artisan construction techniques, evident in the objects presented, introduces one of the central topics of the exhibition, and that is how civil engineering works can draw inspiration from the constant interaction between their design and construction tradition and the landscape where they are.