Hiromi Hosoya and Markus Schaefer, Photo credit:Jos Schmid

Complementing the exhibition at the Pavilion of Switzerland at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia organizes a Collateral Event entitled «Salon Suisse». The «Salon Suisse», now in its third year, is a programme of talks and events offering a platform for exchange on contemporary architecture and thought in a relaxed atmosphere.

This year’s Salon Suisse is curated by Zurich-based architects and urbanists Hiromi Hosoya and Markus Schaefer, founders of Hosoya Schaefer Architects, who have put together an ambitious programme of events focusing on questions around urban development in Switzerland and the increasing pressure of urbanization worldwide. The events will be modelled after a Constitutional Assembly and serve as a thought experiment in critical urbanity. Projecting this Biennale’s preoccupation with the last century into the future and using the historic arc of the Venetian city state as a backdrop, how can the next 100 years be envisioned in an increasingly urban and volatile world?

What would a contemporary conception for Switzerland be in this context? If it had to be founded today, what would be its guiding principles, its business model and its social contract? And how could architecture and urban design support such an endeavour; to what extent do these disciplines need to be political?

To discuss these questions the curators invited thinkers, practitioners and activists to envision such a state and ultimately a physical environment inspired by but without the gritty detail of today’s political reality.