Rendezvous at Club 44

The city of watchmaking – and Swiss Capital of Culture 2027 – welcomed the Baukultur group in early May with cool and wet weather. However, the weather conditions did not dampen the participants’ curiosity and enthusiasm at the NFP 81 programme meeting. Around 90 people from 13 research teams and the steering committee met in La Chaux-de-Fonds on 5 and 6 May, following over a year of research work. The Espace Angelo Mangiarotti at the legendary Club 44 provided a fitting architectural setting for the gathering: in the second half of the 1950s, the Milanese architect Angelo Mangiarotti redesigned the interiors of the club, which had been founded in 1944 on Rue de Serre.

On the first day, the teams presented the current status of their research. Once again, the variety of approaches and perspectives was impressive. The projects are now entering a mature phase, and the first results can be expected as early as next year. Afterwards, cultural guide Sylvie Pipoz led the large group through ‘her’ La Chaux-de-Fonds – a town made famous by ‘urbanisme horloger’, an urban and architectural layout entirely geared towards the watchmaking industry. This distinctive urban landscape has been recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since 2009.

The second day was devoted to the topic of diessemination Baukultur in research and practice. To begin with, two architectural yearbooks were used as a basis for reflecting on the communication of Baukultur. Reporting from Belgium were Dennis Pohl, Director of the Vlaams Architectuurinstituut (VAi), and Petrus Kemme, editor of the Flanders Architectural Yearbook, which has been published since the early 1990s and is dedicated to promoting architectural quality to a wide audience. The Swiss Architecture Yearbook (SAY) is a much more recent publication. It was presented by Ludovica Molo from the foundation, which publishes it, and co-editor Roland Züger from the magazine werk, bauen + wohnen; it was published for the second time in 2025 – both as a book and as a travelling exhibition. In the workshops that followed, the participants discussed the concepts and measures for implementation and dissemination of the research projects.

After two busy days, the weather in La Chaux-de-Fonds showed its more pleasant side: our departure was accompanied by sunshine and a light spring breeze.