A COMPLETELY NEW WAY TO REDISCOVER SWITZERLAND’S CONCRETE CLASSICS
CARTE BRUTE unites the 50 boldest and most ground-breaking Swiss concrete icons and brutalist classics from the past 100 years, including St Anthony’s church in Basel (1927) and Palais des Congrès in Biel/Bienne (1966), alongside select contemporary objects by Herzog & de Meuron or Barozzi Veiga. Folding out to A1, this two-sided poster guide offers a unique and fresh way to rediscover Switzerland’s brutalist-inspired assets.
Lesser-known regional buildings like Couvent des Capucins in Sierre or Saurer Tower in Arbon also feature prominently in this tour de Suisse. Key details for each object, an introduction in English, German and French and map on the belly band provide essential information. Switzerland’s most flamboyant concrete beauty – the tulip-shaped Foundation For Medical Research La Tulipe (Geneva, 1976) stars as a poster on the back. With its visual appeal and flexible format, CARTE BRUTE works equally well for the living room and for outdoor use.
- Images & introduction in English, German and French by Karin Bürki / Head of Heartbrut. Design: Lugma / Foldout guide & poster, A1 (slightly over A5 folded) / Pearlescent 135 gsm Paper / Offset-Print
- Printed in Switzerland
Raw concrete is so omnipresent in Switzerland, it’s part of our cultural DNA, like music and art. And yet, the architecture suffers from a bad rep. Brutalist buildings from the sixties and seventies are by and large still regarded as ‘monsters’. CARTE BRUTE aims to set the record straight and invites everyone to go out and discover the beauty of these buildings for themselves.
Deriving from the French term for raw concrete, béton brut was popularised by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier in the late 1940s. In response, the movement Brutalism emerged via the UK. It championed raw, unfinished materials, bold geometries and massive forms. In the 1960’s Switzerland began to radically modernise and rebuild itself. Concrete, which was affordable and functional, made it possible. At the same time, the material opened up completely new ways of architectural expression. The bold concrete buildings bear witness to a nation in motion in an optimistic era that looked confidently into the future. Béton brut remains highly resonant today. In Switzerland it lives on in the “all-over-rough-design” of many contemporary buildings.
For the design of CARTE BRUTE, HEARTBRUT teamed up with Rebecca de Bautista and Isabella Furler of up-and-coming Zurich design studio LUGMA. More collabs are in the pipeline.
For any requests and your CARTE BRUTE press kit, please contact us via hello at heartbrut.com
CARTE BRUTE is also available at the following select stockists:
Zurich
Bern
St. Gallen
CARTE BRUTE was made possible with the kind support of:
SELECTED PRESS
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Carte Brute
34.00CHF
