‘Lecture by Peter Märkli’

Peter Märkli (1953) is considered to be one of the most significant Swiss architects of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Since 2002 he has taught architecture at the ETH in Zurich where he previously studied under his mentor Rudolf Olgiati. Märkli sees architecture as an ancient language with its own grammar. His fascination with classical order and the search for the right proportions in architecture led him to develop his own system of relations applicable to all scales.

From his Zurich studio, Märkli painstakingly designs and builds architectural projects that respect an unfailingly rigorous approach. His most famous work is La Cogiunta, a Swiss gallery that exhibits the sculptures of Hans Josephsohn, one of Märkli's favourite artists with whom he has frequently worked. This takes the form of an art container in raw concrete designed especially for sculptures. In 2006 he designed an office building for Novartis in Basle, thereby demonstrating his rigorous architecture on a larger scale.