mountains and the natural conditions in the Inn Valley as a spa cooperation arena, to the point that fastidious guests begin to stroll in the shade of the architecture for the summer as they had been accustomed to doing in Monaco, Baden Baden or Marienbad. With the erection of the spa complex in the Inn Valley, a bit of European city living as a social setting was imported into the mountains. In contrast, St. Moritz Village developed trans substantiam from the existing to become the stronghold of winter sports. Thus, many hotels sprang from the original rural tavern. It is insightful to see how the houses, based on their desire to have a view, gradually freed themselves from their village fate and turned to gaze on the landscape which provided the impetus for urban development. Thus, the transformation of the village can be identified as a principle of fate on the slope towards the lake which collectivises the desire for as much of a vista as possible in a type of panoramic coordination arena, akin to an audience at a premiere that piously lines up in the auditorium – on a gentle slope emanating from the edge of the stage – in order to enjoy an exclusive view of the performance in peace and in pleasant company. The structural richness of the emblematic, which in reality has been increasingly at odds with actual in situ development and has ultimately lost all connection with it in recent years, has its roots in the conflicting relationship between the general nature of the spa and the specifics of the village. Thus, the overall resort construction is increasingly becoming a phantasmagoria whose success is reflected in the St. Moritz Brand which is available in fictione at any time and everywhere. The mountain serves as its backdrop, the town becomes illusory while the actual is ready to be bought in a type of illusory consumerist arena. «Top of the world» is emblazoned on perfumes, bottles of Bordeaux, sports equipment and four by fours. The world no longer colonises St. Moritz, but rather vice-versa.
The resonance from the triad of Spa, Village and Brand gives rise to the leitmotif of our studio, the theatrum mondi of the mundane, concerning the preoccupation arising from constructing buildings for tourism, which not only stages the formal power of what is worth seeing in situ with multiple references, but also critically questions the anaemic, singularly formal alpine antics which are in fashion at the moment. It seems important to us that each architect has his/her own St. Moritz or Las Vegas, a place of anchoring which challenges, astonishes and provokes. For whoever has learnt to read what captivates him, no longer forgets how to write it.
Image, stage, construction or the role of architecture
To read a place means a lot more than just to decode the façade of a house from an architectural point of view and label it or pick the individual building and celebrate it as a masterpiece of a renowned architect. To read a place means to understand that architecture is a protagonist. Thus, St. Moritz plays a very different role during mid-season when the stores are empty and draped and talk of the past or await the future than when the snow imposes a common thought, the forgiving winter, on the dispersed buildings and people in the here and now tramp through the alleyways right next to each other, as if they would perform on catwalks in a fashion show! That which applies to the building itself is also important for the making of. Each project seeks out its role within a specific context in order to converse with the surrounding space as it turns into a stage giving inhabitants room for play. For the process of developing good architecture should not be decided on in a conceptual manner beforehand, but rather discussed as a scenario within a setting. Since the intermezzo of the modern, the picture is regarded as a medium and mass conveyor of the concept and retouching served this purpose. Whatever could have obscured the initial concept was removed, i.e. the famous radiators in front of glass walls of modern villas or the staid façade of detached houses which the Schröder House by Rietveld in Utrecht rounds off with a formal headstand on the walking stick. Today, this tradition continues to exist in the aseptic flood of imagery of photo-realistic renderings. They are our legacy of modernity which, in the furore of the tabula rasa, forgot to bear in mind what has gone before and what is yet to come, as if there would be no architecture beyond the image! If I leaf through the professional journals, successful building seems to be legitimised in that it does not differ from the picture conjured up. The picture is also important to us, not as a precocious presumption, but rather as the potential promise of a future reality. With the image, we do not show a premature reproduction, but rather we sketch to initiate a sample by sending it to the stage continually, where it appears and illustrates to the audience what the construction could be. Regardless of whether this takes the form of the intimate role of a customised miniature or the extrovert role on the spacious planks of an urban landscape such as the Oberengadin. This leads to another triad constellation of methodical importance, that of image, stage and construction. The more the three aspects converse with each other, offer each other mutual encouragement, the more architecture will become that space which makes it consistently valuable for catering to needs of society as lebensraum. St. Moritz, 2009 www.christophsauter.com www.scenarena.com
Christoph Sauter