Skift Take
Switzerland is shifting away from tradition and triteness with a headturning array of next-generation architecture for hotels, convention spaces, and attractions.
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The Swiss have an impressive legacy of innovation in many industries, ranging from transportation and timekeeping to finance and fonts. But you wouldn’t know it based on Switzerland’s architecture. The Swiss pretty much slept through the explosion of high-tech design in the late 20th century, sticking with its Romanesque vernacular, 19th century rowhouses, a bit of post-mod 1980s, and the trusty Swiss chalet.
Today is a different story. A slew of edgy hotels and conference centers are opening in Zurich, Basel, Davos, Lausanne and Lucerne. It’s all part of an aggressive attempt among locals to transcend the country’s conservative reputation as the world’s bank, cheesemaker and chocolate factory.
Everything changed in September 2006 when the Freitag brothers bolted together 19 shipping containers to build their FREITAG shop in the burgeoning ex-industrial neighborhood of Zurich West. They needed a place to sell their messenger bags constructed out of heavy duty truck tarps, and Zurich’s tony Bahnhofstrasse avenue didn’t exactly suit their streetwise style.
The international travel and design press went crazy over the container tower. In a country where medieval churches are restored to a point where they look new, someone was finally breaking with tradition. The old warehouses in Zurich West were converted one by one into hip clubs, cafes and galleries, beginning with the conversion of the Schiffbau shipbuilding factory and Schauspielhaus theater in 2002. The Freitags made the story global.
“Zurich West changed everything,” says Mar
