The Swiss Pavilion, entitled Svizzera 240: House Tour, wins the Golden Lion for the best national participation, one of the most prestigious awards dedicated to architecture in the world. The young team of architects from ETH Zurich, Alessandro Bosshard, Li Tavor, Matthew van der Ploeg and Ani Vihervaara, and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, commissioner of the exhibition, received the award at the official opening of the 16th International Architecture Biennale in Venice this morning.
Titled House Tour, the exhibition sees the Swiss Pavilion transformed into a warren of unfurnished rooms, where unremarkable light switches, doors and counters are either shrunk or enlarged inside Switzerland's Venice Biennale pavilion, to give visitors an Alice In Wonderland experience to pay attention to the ubiquitous interior design of rental properties.
"In Switzerland – we always call it a nation of tenants – most of the people live in rental apartments and move quite. So people want a standardised environment," explained Swiss architect and pavilion co-curator Alessandro Bosshard.
The decision was made by the members of the international jury, composed of Frank Barkow (United States), Sofia von Ellrichshausen (Chile), Kate Goodwin (Australia), Patricia Patkau (Canada) and Pier Paolo Tamburelli (Italy). The jury itself is appointed by the Board of Directors of the Venice Biennale chaired by Paolo Baratta, upon recommendation of curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara.
The team of Svizzera 240: House Tour on the award: "We are extremely excited to receive this Golden Lion for our exhibition at the Swiss Pavilion after having won a public competition. Svizzera 240 is about looking at empty flats. We want to take the visitors on a house tour, which offers you an exaggerated architectural sensibility through which you see the peculiarities of your own home from the perspective of an outsider. We very much hope that this opens up new ways of reflecting on the role the apartments’ interior shell plays in shaping our lives and our identities."
The Swiss contribution was selected in a public competition by Pro Helvetia's directorate on the recommendation of an independent jury.
