Art Nouveau in Switzerland
13 August 2021
Switzerland is not in the top ten for Art Nouveau or Jugendstil architecture. The style was introduced in the years leading up to 1900 in the larger cities, especially in the Grand Hotels of the Belle Époque.
The hotel and sanatorium architecture of this period was the first to incorporate Art Nouveau. The enormous growth of (spa) tourism from (Western) Europe and the USA coincided with the heyday of this style in the United Kingdom, Austria, Spain, Belgium, France and Germany.
Art Nouveau was taken for granted. Moreover, these hotels and sanatoria were often situated in or near nature, and Art Nouveau was closely linked to natural elements and geometric motifs.
In the larger cities, Art Nouveau was less prominently present. Primarily, industrialists commissioned buildings and decorations in this style due to their extensive networks in these countries.
The Chachelihüser (stove houses), the Pfauen complex, the Villa Tobler and the Gublerhaus are the best-known examples in Zurich.
The Paulus Church in Basel, the surrounding district, and the Globus department store complex on the Marktplatz are good examples in Basel.
The crematorium (Crématoire) in La Chaux-de-Fonds and the magnificent frescoes by Charles L´Éplattenier (1874-1946), a teacher of Le Corbusier, can rival the Art Nouveau style in Belgium or France. L’Eplattenier created a Style Sapin variant.
The villa Waldbüel in Uzwil (canton of St. Gallen) by the mechanical engineer Theodor Bühler (1877-1915) by the English architect MacKay Hugh Baillie Scott (1865-1945) is another story.
After a stay in England, the industrialist had this villa built or rebuilt between 1907 and 1911 in the Art Nouveau style, combining it with the Arts and Crafts movement, which was very popular in England at the time.
Apart from these buildings are several other residential houses, factories, department stores, and other structures with Art Nouveau features in various parts of the country, especially where industrialists or other European networkers were present.
(Source: T. Richter, ´Jugendstilarchitektur in der Schweiz´, in Kunst + Architektur, Nr. 2, 2021, GSK, Bern).