Solid Fluid Biotic Cover
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Thomas Kissling (ed.)

Solid, Fluid, Biotic

Changing Alpine Landscapes

The Alps are not an immovable mountain massif that will outlast everything else but a dynamic and sensitive organism. For millions of years, everything has been in motion, and everything has been flowing. Against this backdrop, mankind’s period of influence seems vanishingly short. Nevertheless, Homo sapiens is the driving force that reshaped the Alps quite significantly and within a very short time. However, this comparatively rapid change of the Alps does not only hold dangers, but also offers a whole range of new potentials.

Various phenomena of this dynamic landscape were explored within the scope of the 17th Architecture Biennial in Venice by VOGT Landscape Architects and the Chair of Günther Vogt at ETH Zurich. This book documents their findings, and the phenomena are examined by focusing on the three thematic fields of geology, hydrology, and biology in scientific essays, art interventions, and on field trips.

The Alps are not an immovable mountain massif that will outlast everything else but a dynamic and sensitive organism. For millions of years, everything has been in motion, and everything has been flowing. Against this backdrop, mankind’s period of influence seems vanishingly short. Nevertheless, Homo sapiens is the driving force that reshaped the Alps quite significantly and within a very short time. However, this comparatively rapid change of the Alps does not only hold dangers, but also offers a whole range of new potentials.

Various phenomena of this dynamic landscape were explored within the scope of the 17th Architecture Biennial in Venice by VOGT Landscape Architects and the Chair of Günther Vogt at ETH Zurich. This book documents their findings, and the phenomena are examined by focusing on the three thematic fields of geology, hydrology, and biology in scientific essays, art interventions, and on field trips.

English edition – also available in German

Edited by Thomas Kissling

With essays by Conradin A. Burga, Markus Ritter, Günther Vogt, Rolf Weingartner

With contributions by Julian Charrière, Alessandra Chemollo, Katie Paterson, Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger

Design: Integral Lars Müller

16,5 × 24 cm, 6 ½ × 9 ½ in

208 pages, 240 illustrations

paperback

2021, 978-3-03778-677-2, English
Landscape Architecture Venice Biennale 2021
CHF 35.00

Thomas Kissling

Thomas Kissling (*1980) studied architecture at ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) Zurich, having previously trained as a draftsman. He graduated in 2010 under the tutelage of Prof. Wolfgang Schett. He has worked at ETH as a research assistant since 2010 and as a research associate at the Chair of Prof. Günther Vogt since 2016. His teaching and research focus on transformation processes in the Alpine landscape and topics relating to design methodology at the interface between digital and analog technology and practice. Kissling is co-editor of “Landscape as a Cabinet of Curiosities” (2015) and “Mutation and Morphosis” (2020) and the editor of “Solid, Fluid, Biotic” (2021).

CHF 35.00