Architecture: Modern

Six hundred building apprentices from the French-speaking part of Switzerland have erected a tower in the Moron mountain range between Moutier and Bellelay, in the province of Malleray. The tower is 1336 metres above sea level and its thirty-metre high spiral shape dominates the landscape of the Jura mountains.

The STADE DE SUISSE is more than just the home stadium of the long-established Bernese football club, the Young Boys. Far more! It is a meeting point, shopping centre, business centre, temple for gourmets...!

Anyone who’s anyone on the international art scene visits the Löwenbräu-Areal to see what the Migros Museum, the Kunsthalle Zürich or the Galerie Hauser & Wirth have elected to be important positions in the contemporary art scene. The Löwenbräu-Areal not only manages to attract an international audience, but is also responsible for the fact that the formerly run-down industrial district in Zürich’s western quarter has become a truly trendy location.

This first church in Switzerland built from concrete was designed by the architecture professor Karl Moser. It was built between 1925 and 1927. The floor plan of the church, which is built in precast concrete, is a rectangle with the impressive size of 60 x 22 meters and a height of 22 meters. The monumental stained glass windows make St. Antonius stand out as a pioneering church structure.

In Weil am Rhein you can find the most modern architecture and true classics. Take bus no. 55 and in just a few minutes you arrive at the Vitra Design Architecture Park and Museum, the leading institution for industrial furniture design. Frank O. Gehry completed his first building in Europe here and Zaha Hadid her first building ever.

What is now called the Badischer Bahnhof was built between 1910 and 1913 according to plans by the well-known architects Karl Moser and Robert Curjel. It is considered the most important railway building in Switzerland, architecturally. Innovative features at the time were both the stylish design and the free arrangement of the components of the building.

The Goetheanum was built between 1925 and 1928 by Rudolf Steiner and was the first major building to be built using this material (reinforced concrete) for sculptural forms. It is based on an architectural concept in which each element, form and colour bears an inner relation to the whole and the whole flows organically into its single elements in a process of metamorphosis. It is no surprise that Rudolf Steiner settled in Dornach to establish his centre for anthropomorphic learning. The natural beauty, climate and peacefulness must have been vital to him. Come and discover the unique architecture and work of the Goetheanum.

The Pauluskirche was built between 1898 and 1901 by Karl Moser and Robert Curjel. You must discover for yourselves the secrets of the incredibly complex appearance of the Pauluskirche, but it is surely due at least in part to the many contrasts between superimposed layers and soaring towers, the reinterpretation of long-familiar themes in building, and the expressiveness of the Jugendstil, which, in its surfaces, lines and attention to detail, keeps coming back to the organic growth of nature.

With around 4000 pictures (40% of the complete oeuvre) by the famous painter Paul Klee, the new Zentrum Paul Klee is the world's largest collection of its type. The unusual wave-like building was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. As well as art exhibitions, the Paul Klee Centre also provides facilities for music, theatre, dance and literature.

The futuristic Westside Leisure and Shopping Centre in Bern, which was designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, is a shopping centre, multiplex cinema and restaurant, hotel and conference centre, residence for the elderly, adventure pool, spa and fitness park – all in one.