6 – 2012

et cetera Staufer & Hasler

With the new building for the Swiss Federal Administrative Tribunal in St. Gallen a further institution has acquired an enclosing shell and a form that are of real architectural significance. However, the building by architects Staufer & Hasler cannot be read as a highpoint and conclusion of an epoch – but rather represents a beginning: the questions and answers about representation, about tectonics and architectural space raised by this building allow one to expect a renewal of Swiss architecture or, at the very least, to hope for an infusion of new life into the debate about it. The interpretation of the brief, the construction and the ceremonial, yet modern, framework of the architecture of this court building which are all far removed from empty formulations of pathos indicate beyond the “Swiss Box” and the “Swiss Shapes”. In addition the spatial and constructional innovations here touch upon complex and yet comprehensible rules – and this encourages the formation of opinions in society, in particular about public architecture.