13.03. - 08.05.2016

Spatial Positions 11. This was Tomorrow: Reinventing Architecture 1953-1978

​Opening: 12.03.2016, 7 pm

The S AM presents ‘This Was Tomorrow’ an exhibition by the Drawing Matter collection about architectural imagination, and the power, processes and poetics of creation and invention.
Curated by Markus Lähteenmäki, Manuel Montenegro & Nicholas Olsberg in cooperation with Hubertus Adam, the exhibition presents a series of twelve episodes focused on the period from 1953 to 1978 in the reconsideration of architecture. They all explore the very different ways to activate the potentials of the built environment in reforming the relations of human beings to each other and to their environments -- from Le Corbusier’s final explorations of a new harmony of form to Aldo Rossi’s first evocations of the force of history.

ACCOMPANYING PROGRAMME

12.03.2016, 7 PM: Opening
17.03.2016, 6 PM: Public Guided Tour
07.04.2016, 6 PM: Public Guided Tour
21.04.2016, 6 PM: Public Guided Tour

THE EXHIBITION IS SUPPORTED BY:

GGG Gesellschaft für das Gute und Gemeinnützige
Panoramah

CREDITS

1. Le Corbusier, Model for Le Main Ouverte, Chandigarh, 1950-1965. © FLC-ADAGP.
2. Le Corbusier, Study Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp, 1950-1955. © FLC-ADAGP.
3. John Hejduk, Silent Witnesses: The Extro-Intro House, 1975. © Estate of the architect.
4. James Gowan, Study for an Expandable House, 1957. © Estate of the architect.
5. Álvaro Siza, Bouça Housing, Porto, c. 1972. © Estate of the architect.
6. Adolfo Natalilni (Superstudio), Study for the Continuous Monument, 1969. © The architect.
7. Walter Pichler, Study for the Underground City, c. 1963. © The artist.
8. Constant, New Babylon, 1963. © Estate of the artist.
9. Michael Webb, Sin Centre, 1961. © The architect.
​10. Hans Hollein, City, Communication Interchange, 1962. © Estate of the architect.

 

Upcoming exhibitions

05.04. - 14.09.2025

What Was Could Be: Experiments Between Preservation and Architecture

An Exhibition by the  S AM Swiss Architecture Museum in Cooperation with the Chair of Construction Heritage and Preservation (Prof. Dr. Silke Langenberg), ETH Zurich.


Preservation is progressive: In current efforts to shift towards more sustainable building practices (known in German as the Bauwende, or ‘building turnaround’), preservation and maintenance of the existing building stock play a central role. The alteration or conversion of an existing building is considerably more resource-efficient than a comparable new build. This is leading to changes in the nature of architecture itself: where the focus used to be on new construction, building upon the built is increasingly considered the future of the discipline.

27.09. - 09.11.2025

SAY Swiss Architecture Yearbook

What defines Swiss architecture? The exhibition focuses on current construction and renovation projects with the aim of raising awareness about Swiss building culture and increase its visibility.
Curated by the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum and the magazine werk, bauen+wohnen.

29.11.2025 - 19.04.2026

Housing for Housing: The cooperative as a laboratory for coexistence

The exhibition presents cooperative housing regionally, nationally and internationally as a laboratory of non-profit-oriented cohabitation from which the entire city can benefit.