Hybrid, Masonry, Concrete, Timber, Steel analyses twenty-five recent Swiss buildings through isometric drawings of their shells at 1:15, making visible the constructional innovation that finished photography usually conceals.
About This Book
Construction is changing quickly, pushed by sustainability requirements, new technical possibilities, material optimisation and more efficient building processes — but that change happens inside the wall, where it is hardest to see. This book takes the opposite approach to the usual survey: rather than presenting completed buildings, it dissects them. Twenty-five Swiss projects are documented through photographs and analytical isometric drawings of the building shell, all drawn to a consistent scale of 1:15, and organised by five distinct construction methods. Produced by the Chair of Building Technology and Construction (BUK) at ETH Zurich, it is intended less as a record than as an argument — a prompt for serious discussion about where construction goes next.
Key Features
- Twenty-five Swiss projects documented through analytical isometric drawings of building shells
- Edited by Daniel Mettler, Daniel Studer and Irène von Meiss-Leuthold, Chair of Building Technology and Construction / BUK, ETH Zurich
- All shell drawings presented at a consistent 1:15 scale, enabling direct comparison across methods
- Buildings by EMI, Caruso St John, Peter Märkli, Meier Hug and Esch Sintzel, among others
- Fifty illustrations, all in colour, including a dedicated photo essay
What You'll Discover
- How five different construction methods — hybrid, masonry, concrete, timber and steel — resolve the same problems in materially different ways
- What a consistent 1:15 drawing scale reveals when applied across an entire body of contemporary work
- The constructional logic behind buildings by practices including Caruso St John, Peter Märkli and Esch Sintzel
- How sustainability demands and material optimisation are reshaping the building shell rather than the building's appearance
About the Author
Daniel Mettler, Daniel Studer and Irène von Meiss-Leuthold teach at the Chair of Building Technology and Construction (BUK) at ETH Zurich, where the analytical drawing of built work forms the basis of construction teaching.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Dimensions: 22.0 × 30.0 cm
- Pages: 128
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783035627459
- Publisher: Birkhäuser
Perfect For: Architects and students working seriously on detailing, anyone teaching or studying construction technology, and readers who want contemporary Swiss architecture explained through how it is built rather than how it looks.