Berner Kulturagenda

We’re getting tired of walking in the woods. The double-page folding guide “Carte Brute” is an invitation to discover new, urban walking routes through a Switzerland full of architectural heritage. It offers a “tour de Suisse en béton brut”. In it, writer and photographer Karin Bürki pictures a total of 50 icons of Swiss exposed concrete architecture complete with key data. Inventiveness and playfulness are key features of the easily misunderstood style of “brutalism”. Derived from “raw concrete”, “béton brut”, the style refers less to something brutal and ugly than to a peculiar, beautiful rawness. Since the invention of reinforced concrete in 1867, the blending of cement and rock has given architecture almost unlimited possibilities for sculpturalism and plasticity.