Revisiting Corboz.
November 16–17, 2022, Accademia di architettura USI, Mendrisio.

International Conference in conjunction with the exhibition
Territory as Palimpsest: The legacy of André Corboz.
Teatro dell’architettura, Mendrisio / November 4, 2022–February 5, 2023

The first comprehensive, large-scale exhibition on André Corboz (1928–2012) is both the backdrop and the reason for this conference. Revisiting Corboz will discuss research methods, questions and key themes in the work of the Swiss architecture and art historian, long-time professor of the history of urbanism at ETH Zurich. Organised around four thematic fields, the conference looks at various issues and contexts that were relevant for Corboz – in particular for his contributions to the discourse on cities, territories and urbanised landscapes.
Undoubtably, there is renewed interest in his legacy today. The continuous renegotiation of territory, an issue identified by Corboz in the early 1980s, remains critical in Switzerland and elsewhere. Which conceptual framework did he provide? Likewise, one must situate his reading of urban form and landscape in its time, while asking how and why he had such a unique grasp of spatial issues. Was this also caused by the historian's scepticism toward emerging Postmodernism?
Corboz described himself as a ‘disciplinary nomad’ and invites a multitude of perspectives. Engaging with contemporary issues and with historiography, this conference brings together a range of historians and practitioners as well as former colleagues and students.

Concept:
André Bideau, Sonja Hildebrand

Contact:
isa.arcusi.ch

Conference programme

Wednesday, November 16

14.00 Welcome remarks

Tales of two cities:

14.15 Elena Cogato Lanza, EPFL
"Prendre un lieu pour un autre: Les essais genevois d’André Corboz, 1963–2007"

15.00 François Burkhardt, Berlin
"Intervento di André Corboz in occasione della 'Settimana di progettazione Alt und Neu' presso l’IDZ di Berlino"

15.45 Coffee break

Configuring territories:

16.15 Milica Topalovic, ETH Zurich
"Rethinking Repair in Agriterritories"

17.00 Andrea Felicioni, Lugano
"Verso il Piano direttore comunale di Lugano"

18.00 Marco Graber, Regula Iseli, Franz Oswald and Thomas Pulver in conversation with Sonja Hildebrand
"An early investigation of Zurich’s periphery"

Thursday, November 17

9.30 André Bideau, Sonja Hildebrand
"A scenography for the palimpsest: Challenges and insights"

André Corboz, transversal historian?

10.00 Sylvain Malfroy, Neuchatel
"Le petit livre rouge d’André Corboz"

10.45 Stanislaus von Moos in conversation with André Bideau
"Montage as method of writing history"

11.30 Coffee break

11.45 Exhibition visit with curators or individual
Guided tour to the library and Fondo Corboz

12.30 Lunch break

The urbanised landscape between myth and reality:

14.00 Catherine Maumi, Paris La-Villette
"L'utilité d'un avocat du diable reste donc entire: Apprendre à comprendre la ville et le territoire nord-américain"

14.45 Angelus Eisinger, Regionalplanung Zürich und Umgebung RZU
"Switzerland as a city: Exploring André Corboz’s contribution to a persistent paradox"

Polycentric and antiurban Switzerland: interpretation and transformation over time:

15.30 Final discussion
Moderators: Elena Cogato Lanza, Frida Grahn

16.45 End of conference and closing reception

Guest speakers:

François Burkhardt
Editor, curator and professor emeritus; director of Internationales Design Zentrum, Berlin, and Centre de Création industrielle, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Elena Cogato Lanza
Adjunct Professor, Laboratory of Urbanism and director of doctoral programme Architecture and sciences of the city, EPFL

Angelus Eisinger
Historian of urbanism and director of Regionalplanung Zürich und Umgebung

Andrea Felicioni
Architect and head of urban planning, city of Lugano
Responsible for Lugano communal masterplan

Marco Graber
Co-founder Graber Pulver Architekten and former diploma student of André Corboz and Franz Oswald (together with Regula Iseli and Thomas Pulver)

Regula Iseli
Co-director Institut Urban Landscape, ZHAW Winterthur, and former diploma student of André Corboz and Franz Oswald (together with Marco Graber and Thomas Pulver)

Sylvain Malfroy
Architecture historian, former professor of architecture and urban history at ZHAW Winterthur and longtime teaching assistant of André Corboz at ETH Zurich

Catherine Maumi
Professor of architecture and urban history and theory, ENSA Paris La Villette / HESAM Université

Stanislaus von Moos
Professor emeritus of art history at University of Zurich, curator and critic, founding editor of Archithese

Franz Oswald
Architect and professor emeritus of architecture at ETH Zurich, head jury expert for Lugano communal masterplan

Thomas Pulver
Co-founder Graber Pulver Architekten and former diploma student of André Corboz and Franz Oswald (together with Marco Graber and Regula Iseli)

Milica Topalovic
Professor of architecture and territorial planning at ETH Zurich, former scientific collaborator at ETH Studio Basel