Diener & Diener Architects – Housing is the first systematic account of 40 years of residential work by one of Switzerland's most rigorous practices, presented through 30 projects and the typological thinking that produced them.
About This Book
For Diener & Diener, housing is architecture's first and most beautiful task—and for the Basel and Berlin practice that carries his name it has been a genuine recherche patiente. The roots run deeper than the firm itself: Marcus Diener founded the earlier studio in 1942, and his son joined in 1976 before taking it over entirely in 1980. This book gathers that long arc into a single argument.
Rather than presenting the buildings as discrete objects, the authors read them through the typological process that underpins each one. Diener & Diener work with a small repertoire of fundamental types, updating and adapting them to the requirements and restraints of each new task. The consistency of that method—not stylistic signature—is what gives the work its standing in contemporary housing.
Key Features
- 30 realised designs and unbuilt proposals in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands
- 82 colour and 120 black-and-white illustrations
- Newly taken photography alongside floor and site plans
- Previously unpublished material drawn from the practice's own archive
- The earlier studio of Marcus Diener, 1942–1980, documented here for the first time
- Draws on Roger Diener's collected lectures
What You'll Discover
- How a small set of housing typologies can be adapted to widely varying urban conditions without losing coherence
- The way Diener & Diener treat urban context as the generator of built form rather than its backdrop
- Why restraint in pattern, typology and material has proved more durable than formal invention
- How a practice sustains a single line of research across four decades
About the Author
Alexandre Aviolat is an architect and teaching assistant in the Theory and History of Architecture Laboratory 2 at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. Bruno Marchand is professor of architectural theory in the same laboratory. The volume also carries contributions from Martin Steinmann, professor emeritus of architecture and architectural theory at EPFL, and a conversation with Roger Diener.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Dimensions: 23 × 29 cm
- Pages: 176
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783038601852
- Publisher: Park Books
- Publication Date: 2020
Perfect For
Architects and students working on residential and multi-residential projects, readers following contemporary Swiss architecture, and anyone interested in typology as a working design method rather than a historical category.