darco magazine

Valentin Bearth, Andrea Deplazes and partner Daniel Ladner have been working collectively from Chur in Switzerland since 1988. All three have held teaching posts at ETH Zurich and the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio. Their work as planners and teachers is clear in their approach, where a rigorous planning process accompanies an experimental attitude to materials and structural solutions. With photography that matches the firm's clean, restful aesthetic, the 20 mostly small-scale, residential projects featured here reveal the practice's blend of technology and tradition, and the formal clarity and economy they bring to inaccessible mountain sites, rich in natural grandeur and vernacular architectural tradition.