Jonathan Sergison
JS: I remember when Stephen and I first started coming to Switzerland. I remember at some point noticing that you rarely see screws that arenʼt all consistently horizontal or consistently vertical, which means that the people employed in the making of a building take that level of care. No-one is demanding it, I am sure. I think that sense of pride in relation to one’s craft is really important. I hear now about the pressure subcontractors are under with the building that's going on adjacent to the railway station in Zurich, and it feels like a rather worrying tale of the future of building in Switzerland. In fact this is becoming «normal» in Europe, where workers are placed under enormous pressures of time and budget. There has always been pressure in the act of building, but it was based on a sense that everyone was contributing as best they could to a common project. If you have the money, it is always possible to employ craftsmen in any country in Europe, but it is only in Switzerland and Portugal, that it's still possible to do remarkable things because there is a craft-based building industry that's still intact. HB: Is there a way to preserve craftsmanship? JS: Well, I hope so. I mean, that's the thing that we should all be resisting: the loss of pride in craft. We have it, but it's constantly under assault! Yes, I think it's all about resisting that pressure. UH: Yes, this touches on one important motivation of architecture. When we started this conversation, you were saying that you like to be involved in the making of things. I think that's closing the circle; for me this is still a motivation of being an architect. JS: It is wonderful when you feel that someone brings something, which is beyond your own ambition – Perhaps not beyond your hopes... HB: And also beyond your control, maybe… JS: Yes, that's very true. Even with a lot of experience in building, there are still things that, although you know in principle how they happen, you are never really sure exactly how they are carried out. It's still a great pleasure going to a building site and just learning from watching how your work is being interpreted and made into a physical reality. And however much we imagine that what is realised will be like what we designed, it is never quite the same, and this certainly keeps things exciting. Of course, we make lots of models and lots of drawings and, where possible, things continue to evolve during the process of building; but what is built in the end rarely was in your head at the beginning. I think anyone who says otherwise is kidding himself. UH: And there are also many qualities that appear during this process of making that you cannot really control. That's what I always think of in the context of 3-D printers, all the qualities that are eliminated and ignored, which I think would be quite a pity.