For the first time, Switzerland has its own architecture yearbook. Properly Swiss – in English and three national languages. SAY Swiss Architecture Yearbook!

At last, the high quality of Swiss architecture and building culture will be tangibly showing its face on the international stage as well. In all its diversity. Be it urban or rural. Be it architecture from Ticino, Geneva, Basel, Aargau or Graubünden. From the large-scale pioneering project to the little innovation laboratory.

SAY Swiss Architecture Yearbook will be released biennially from 2023 onwards. Curated by the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum and the magazine werk, bauen+wohnen.

An accompanying travelling exhibition will start on the 8th of September 2023 at the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum. This will promote discussion of the book’s content in Switzerland and abroad, fuelling the debate on Swiss architecture.

What are the most urgent questions that Swiss architecture is addressing? Which projects from all over Switzerland provide the most convincing answers?
SAY Swiss Architecture Yearbook is more than just a selection of the best. It is a confrontation with the questions that many people are facing after an almost thirty-year construction boom:

• How do we find sustainable approaches to construction?
• How can architecture be made compatible with the challenge of climate change?
• How can top-quality urban density be achieved?
• How do we preserve and transform our building stock?
• What can be learnt from construction in Switzerland’s rural regions?
• What can architecture contribute to the protection and value of landscape?
• Where are Swiss architects building, worldwide?
• How does Switzerland’s architecture present itself from a European perspective?

SAY Swiss Architecture Yearbook is published once every two years, thus reflecting the current discourse each time.

Europe has the EU Mies Award – the most important exchange platform for European architecture from Poland to Portugal. Switzerland, which is not an EU member, has so far been excluded from it. Every year, many regions and nations, from Flanders to the Netherlands and through to Germany, proudly display the fruits of their architectural labours.

Switzerland has a plethora of high-quality architectural magazines, but these are published in French, German and Italian – not in a language that is read worldwide. Thus, despite its outstanding calibre, its widespread competition culture, the relatively high standing of its designing architects, and its many innovative clients, Swiss architecture remains strangely unnoticed, in the shadows.

Even within Switzerland, there is no regular exchange platform or vehicle for nationwide debates. The regional architecture scenes, notwithstanding the interest they attract, remain largely isolated. This brings diversity and difference – but also a lack of knowledge about what is happening next door and what could be learnt from each other.

SAY Swiss Architecture Yearbook – the book, the exhibition and the many accompanying events promote dialogue throughout Switzerland and increase the visibility of architectural work, across linguistic and national boundaries.

SAY 23 will be published by Park Books in September 2023

Issued by the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum (Andreas Ruby) and werk, bauen+wohnen (Daniel Kurz) on behalf of Stiftung Architektur Schweiz SAS (Swiss Architecture Foundation)
Editors: Daniel Kurz, Jasmin Kunst, Andreas Ruby
Design: Claudiabasel
In English
Original articles in Italian, French or German
304 pages, card-bound
Numerous pictures
Price: 49 CHF / 48 EUR

Switzerland-wide travelling exhibition

Exhibition at the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel
Duration: 9th of September – 5th of November 2023
Curators: Andreas Ruby and Yuma Shinohara
The exhibition will be presented in all regions of Switzerland during 2024 and 2025, taking the discourse to all parts of the country. We will publish the exact locations here, as soon as they are known.

Discourse events

The Switzerland-wide SAY 23 programme is currently being developed. We will publicly announce all events here on an ongoing basis.

Dates

Book publication date: September 2023
Exhibition at the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum: 9/9 – 5/11/2023
Vernissage and book launch: 8/9/2023 at S AM
Tours throughout Switzerland: 2024/2025
SAY 25: publication and exhibition in September 2025

Stiftung Architektur Schweiz SAS

In 2022, the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum and the Federation of Swiss Architects (FSA) jointly founded Stiftung Architektur Schweiz SAS, based in Basel. This foundation supports SAY Swiss Architecture Yearbook.

The Stiftung Architektur Schweiz board of trustees

Daniel Wiener, culture manager, journalist, Basel; member of the S AM board of trustees; president of the SAS board of trustees
Marianne Burki, art and architecture historian; Burki & Li culture projects, Zurich; member of the S AM board of trustees; vice president of the SAS board of trustees
Stéphanie Bender, FSA architect, 2b architectes, Lausanne; member of the Verlag Werk AG board of directors
Céline Guibat, FSA architect, mijong architecture, Sion/Zurich; member of the S AM board of trustees
Inès Lamunière, FSA architect, dl-a designlab-architecture; professor at EPFL, Geneva
Ludovica Molo, FSA architect, studio we architetti, Istituto i2a, Lugano; member of the S AM board of trustees; president of FSA
Andreas Sonderegger, FSA architect, pool Architekten, Zurich; vice president of FSA; member of the Verlag Werk AG board of directors

SAY – the team

Andreas Ruby, director of S AM, and Daniel Kurz, former editor-in-chief at werk, bauen+wohnen, are the artistic directors of SAY. They are responsible for the content of the yearbook, and of the accompanying exhibitions and events.
The SAY team comprises Anne Schmidt-Pollitz, Maja Schelldorfer, Roland Züger, Jasmin Kunst, Elizaveta Radi and Fabienne Schneider.

Stiftung Architektur Schweiz SAS
info@say.ch

S AM Swiss Architecture Museum
info@sam-basel.org

werk, bauen+wohnen
info@wbw.ch

Park Books
info@park-books.com

SAY gratefully acknowledges the generous support of:

International selection committee

From 129 nominated projects, an international selection committee chose 36 works of architecture and building culture for publication in SAY 23.

Peter Cachola Schmal, director of Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM), Frankfurt a.M., chair
Catherine Gay, FSA architect, GayMenzel, Monthey; HEIA Fribourg
Manon Mollard, editor, The Architectural Review, London
Martino Pedrozzi, FSA architect, Mendrisio
Andreas Ruby, director of the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel
Roland Züger, editor-in-chief at werk, bauen+wohnen, Zurich
Leonid Slonimskiy, KOSMOS Architects, Zurich

Otherwise engaged:
Cristina Gamboa, Cooperativa Lacol, Barcelona
Barbara Tirone, a-architectes; president of Association Pavillon Sicli and Maison de l’Architecture, Geneva

Nominators SAY 23