Solid, Fluid, Biotic. Changing Alpine Landscapes

Thomas Kissling (Ed.)
2021
Available at Lars Müller Publishers

The Alpine region is characterized by a great diversity in all spatial dimensions and qualities. This circumstance is not to be read primarily as the result of adfirst of all as an expression of the alpine topography, determined ministrative drawing of borders, but at the same time by intensive cultivation by humankind.

However, the assumption that this configuration, seen against a background of massive rocks and steep ridges, is a steady formation would be misleading. For the Alps are not a stable structure, but a dynamic and sensitive organism. Here, boundaries are ceaselessly overcome and continuously shifted. This goes hand in hand with a change in perception and is conditioned by natural dynamics, transforming cultural practices and the bridging of topographical obstacles, whereby the Alps are not only opened up internally, but at the same time integrated into an overall European context. Thus, over a long period of time, a space was created in which the most diverse things came together and were interwoven with the local. However, this principle of interaction is increasingly giving way to a one-sided claim from the outside. At the same time, the nature and manner of human access have themselves taken on geological dimensions.

In the context of the 17th Venice architecture biennial, contributions by Vogt Landscape Architects and the Chair of Günther Vogt at ETH Zurich, Institute of Landscape and Urban Studies illuminate individual manifestations of this dynamic landscape with a view to hydrological, biological and geological aspects. The book documents the contributions at the Biennale and complements them with scientific essays, artistic works and comprehensive photographs taken during field trips to the Alps.

With essays by Conradin Burga, Markus Ritter, Günther Vogt, Rolf Weingartner
With contributions by Julian Charrière, Allessandra Chemollo, Gerda Steiner, Jörg Lenzlinger