Schweizerisches Landesmuseum Zürich. Erweiterung 2010-2016Edited by Jenny Keller, with photographs by Roman KellerBundesamt für Bauten und Logistik BBL, August 2016

Paperback | 8-1/4 x 10-1/2 inches | 150 pages | English/German/French/Italian | ISBN: 9783906211138

FOREWORD (Excerpt):
There are several historical museums in Switzerland but only one National Museum and following its opening on 25 June 1898, Swiss history has been seen on a federal scale. The fairy tale castle Gustav Gull placed behind Zurich's main railway station was a monument to the confederation, not the federal states. The National Museum embodied the independent nation state because the spirit of the Swiss lived in the house of history.
It still lives there, even if it has changed. After over a hundred years, its castle became too constricting and, moreover, it was declining with age. Thorough renovation and expansion were required. The primary concern for the renovation was dealing with the original building and for the expansion, the interplay of old and new. A new whole, a multiform entity has been created and the museum has become more surprising, more magical. It is the monument to a modern, open, sober Switzerland and sums up the last 120 years of Swiss and architectural history. dDAB COMMENTARY:
On Tuesday I reviewed Pisé ? Rammed Earth, an impressive book that is partly a historical account of rammed earth construction in Switzerland and France's Rhône-Alps region, places not normally asso...