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 similarly radical yet different point of view. Reclaiming a central role for the Landschaft—land, landscape, and the entire un-built territory—the Swiss territory, both built and un-built, becomes the lens to develop alternative strategies and visions for the future.
