Lucius Burckhardt

On the occasion of this year's Swiss Pavilion at the Architecture Biennale in Venice curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and commissioned by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Herzog & de Meuron are collaborating with gta Exhibitions on an experimental presentation of Burckhardt's work. In the early 1970's Burckhardt was visiting professor at the Architecture Department of the ETH Zurich and had an important influence on the study of architecture. Burckhardt established the importance of sociological questions in architecture education and founded the non-hierarchic lecture and discussion format Lehrcanapé. The Lehrcanapé as well as Promenadology – Burckhardts science of the walk – are today reactivated at the ETH Zurich by Prof. Dr. Philip Ursprung. The exhibition itself is an education program involving students as mediators of the legacy of Burckhardt for both the exhibition at the ETH Zurich as well as at the Swiss Pavilion later this year.