Materiality and Ascetism in Architecture. A Paradigm to Learn From

The architecture that can be traced back to the minimalist asceticism of the Swiss area is today one of the most significant experiences in the heterogeneous panorama of the art of building. This approach, which is particularly recognisable in the Graubünden Canton, is characterised by fully expressing the physicality of the materials used on the one hand, and the construction procedure on the other. The creative process is therefore based on the material culture, involving a clear disregard for the superfluous. Every detail must have a sense of necessity, must be constructive and poetic. The work excludes any form of sophistication that could compromise the use of the materials' visual and the tactile values, altering the understanding of the way in which they participate in the construction dimension. Materials, joint solutions and construction programmes must be simple and easily readable, in the knowledge that the most delicate knots of the architectural structure are the juxtapositions, the transition lines, the transit situations - the inbetween. The solution contact between the materials has to be managed by pursuing the accuracy rather than the spectacularity of the gesture, expressing the function of the detail and making the constructive detail appear dismountable in its components. In this, lies the classic character of this architecture. The picture of building operations corresponding to the approach described above is very rich and consistent. From this are taken the examples here described, works that can easily be placed in relation to each other, as they express the authors' willingness to work with non-refined constructive elements, expressing the search for an austere life, based on archaic values, ethics and spirituality. This is what is produced by the three generations of architects working in the Graubünden Canton, an improper school that has Peter Zumthor as its former point of reference.