Triemli’s Tektonic

The two quintessential forms of modernism could be said to be Corbusier’s domino and Malevich’s architecton. Whereas the domino stands for structure and uniformity, the architecton promotes the assemblage of heterogeneous spatial volumes.

At Triemliplatz, one gets a very faint sense of an urban or metropolitan condition. Yet, with the exception of Esther and Rudolf Guyer’s Schwesternhaus, most buildings pull away or turn their backs on the traffic circle. Here, Malevich’s architecton is identified as a versatile, contextual form able to add instant density around Triemliplatz while still managing to quickly taper  down to meet the low housing volumes which retreat from this centre.