In 1955 Max Frisch, Lucius Burckhardt, and Markus Kutter published achtung: die Schweiz, a warning about the increasing level of sprawl throughout the Swiss landscape and a plea for a new and better controlled urbanity in the form of high-density settlements. Sixty years later, the level of alarm against the increasing levels of urban sprawl has not diminished and yet single-family houses and low-density settlements still unabatedly continue to threaten the Swiss landscape. Openly alluding to the book of 1955, achtung: die Landschaft suggests a different yet radical point of view. Reclaiming a central role of Landschaft–land, landscape, and the entire un-built territory–as a remedy to current urban conditions, the understanding of the Swiss Un-built territory becomes the lens through which alternative strategies and visions for the future can now advance.
The book features a collaborative text by Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Lisa Euler, Metaxia Markaki, Martino Tattara, Charlotte von Moos, an interview with Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Philip Ursprung, and Günther Vogt and a selection of recent student works from ETH Studio Basel.
