Category — Switzerland

Driving along the coast of Lake Geneva… you see a few houses (or shall we say manisons) you wouldn’t mind inheriting from that aunt you never heard of… but this house sticks out!

By Kaufmann Widrig Archtiects via designboom

Valerio Olgiati replaced an old barn in the protected centre of the Swiss village Scharans with the Atelierhouse Bardill.  Apparently the local authorities granted the building permit due to the fact that the new building had the exact same volume as the old barn.

There goes another Swiss bureaucracy myth…

via dailyicon

March 31st marks the end of the eating lunch surrounded by blue fog era in my hometwon! Later than many others… the town of Basel decided to finally ban smoking from Bars and Restaurants…

But despite all of us knowing… that smoking is bad for your health… it did have some swagger… so here’s a farewell…

The Vitrahouse by Herzog & De Meuron… or what else could happen… when two of the local architecture and design firms get together to build a house…

www.vitra.com

Looking at the images of the soon to be opened Rolex Learning Center… makes me wonder if maybe… I paid too much for my Sea Dweller after all?! But then again… it all appears to be for a good cause…

The Rolex Learning Center

Let’s for once neglect the charming-tourist-postcard views… and look at Switzerland from a different angle! That’s pretty much what Ursula Sprecher and Julian Salinas did when they shot and selected the images for their book Heimatland. The book is a beauty and some claim that Ursula and Julian have found the “soul” of Switzerland.

Check it out at Issuu or get your hardcopy via Truce

Or as we say… “Wie ein Elefant im Porzellanladen” wouldn’t prevent me from packing my bags and moving straight into the Fabergé shop recently opened in Geneva!

Who would have expected such a look from a company who’s mostly famous for laying eggs since something like 1882…

After a few disputes with various bureaucrats, the Whitepod Camp has finally found a home in Les Giettes, Switzerland!

The resort provides an alternative means to explore the Swiss Alps. With the use of the pods (dome shaped tents), pitched on wooden platforms, Whitepod offers low impact accommodation in an untouched and pristine alpine environment. Isolated from all urban pollution, the mountain region lends itself beautifully to such an eco-tourism development.

Member of « The Luxury Camps & Lodges of the World » and rewarded with the World Prize for Sustainable Tourism in 2005, the Whitepod Resort aims to be a model for sustainable tourism by using a number of measures to limit its impact on nature…

Definitely not your regular camping experience!
Check out their website or follow them on facebook

If you’re in the Basel area and need to replenish your culture stock after the holidays…

1. Check out the Campana exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum.
2. Check out Jenny Holzer at the Fondation Beyeler.

And live happily ever after…

And since i’m rooting for local players this early in the year… go check out Maurice de Mauriac. The small Zurich watch manufacturer run by Daniel Dreifuss definitely deserves some credit for creating stylish and innovative designs!

Check out the article Hodinkee published recently about testing one of Daniels pieces.