Skilful architecture without gloss and bling bling

In this book, Albert Kirchengast looks at three projects that may serve as models of further construction: Max Dudler, Franz Riepl, and Jonathan Sergison demonstrate an analogous approach to further construction at the scale levels of village, town and city. With their elementary "constructedness", clean proportions and elegant interplay of volumes in the urban space, these projects embody a permanence without affectation and fashionable elements and provide a meaningful and unassuming background to everyday life. In doing so, they not only answer the pressing question of the ecology of coexistence, but also provide a benchmark within our heterogeneous design culture.

Photos by Hélène Binet, David Schreyer and Stefan Müller as well as historical illustrations accompany the plea for a masterful 'middle way' in architecture.

Albert Kirchengast, architectural theorist, author and lecturer at ETH Zurich