To the lecture of Giona Caminada in the Bethlehem Chapel

At the invitation of Michal Škoda from the Gallery of Contemporary Art in České Budějovice and Miroslav Cikán from the MCA studio, Swiss architect Gion A. Caminada arrived in Prague at the beginning of May, whose work has been closely associated with the remote Graubünden valley of Vrin since the early 1990s.
For the first time, the Czech audience got to know Caminada's work thanks to the Circle in September 2003 during the study tour 'Through Swiss Architecture I.' In March 2005, Caminada visited Prague for the first time, where he gave a lecture titled 'Searching on the Periphery – Spaces, Houses, and Stories' in the experimental space NoD.
On the lecture titled 'Creating Places', held on Tuesday, May 6, 2014, at 7:00 PM, hundreds of students and architects filled the Bethlehem Chapel to capacity. Gion Caminada welcomed the audience with a Romansh greeting 'Buna sera', which he felt was linguistically more picturesque and closer to Czech than German, in which the entire lecture was conducted. Throughout the evening, he wanted to show primarily what new developments have occurred in Vrin since his last visit and what might be seen in Prague in another ten years.
Caminada is interested in slowness. Whether in the way of life, conceptualizing ideas, or in the actual implementation of a project. Some things cannot be rushed without negatively impacting their quality, and buildings are among them. Renzo Piano compares today's era to someone wanting a child to be born in just nine weeks. Peter Zumthor has not built more than one building a year over his forty-year career. Construction spanning over a decade is not unusual for him, and in case of compromise, he is firmly resolved to demolish the building instead. Caminada is less radical in his approach to projects; he enjoys long conversations with village communities and clients to make his buildings dear to them. The word 'architecture' means little to the local farmers with whom Caminada must negotiate daily, but “if it works, it can also be beautiful.”
By rejecting rapid transience, one simultaneously sheds the hustle of acquiring the unnecessary, begins to notice subtle differences, and appreciates traditions shaped by constant repetition with slight variations, just lightly improving the existing. In the high mountains, there are not many architects who need to prove anything to each other.
For Caminada, local culture is the main starting point in his design. However, he is not satisfied with just external features or superficial aesthetics; he diligently searches for what is hidden at first glance or even speculative. One cannot understand everything immediately and probably never will, but if one wants to achieve something, they must learn the basic processes, clarify things, and make sense of the space around them. Caminada admits that he could build in large cities or in China, but he would have to completely change his habits and try to change his nature with each new assignment from a different environment.
Not everyone in the audience had the opportunity to attend Caminada's lecture nine years ago, so he devoted the introduction to his own work for the Vrin valley, which includes several villages with tens of inhabitants. He then discussed his work at ETH Zurich, where he teaches every two weeks. Caminada's first Prague lecture was titled 'Vrin – as a place for experiments and understanding'. He himself admits that Vrin is not just a long-term project but an integral part of his life, where he was born and will probably die one day. When creating, he is not interested in time or when a project begins or ends.
Yet in the Vrin valley, there is an abundance of time, calmness, and slowness. In this region, Romansh is widely spoken (a language used by only 0.8% of Swiss people and 14% of Graubünden inhabitants), and under harsh conditions, one has always had to live in harmony with nature. Otherwise, they would perish. In the pursuit of improving their living conditions, however, many have often failed. The local architecture is characterized by constant repetition and gradual progress. From repetition comes strength, and by repeating the same, one learns best towards perfection. If we call for change, we must first understand well what we already have. The absence of external financial pressures thus manifested in the natural design of buildings in harmony with nature.
The shape of Vrin has been shaped by topography, and one of Caminada's first projects in this village was a community house (1991), where he completed the second half of the object in the same spirit without aiming for contrast. He stylistically adhered to similar houses in the village center, the oldest of which date back to 1746. For the multipurpose hall (1995), the largest building in Vrin, he enlisted the help of an excellent structural engineer, Jürg Conzett, from Chur. They wanted to highlight the qualities arising from the essence of wood and demonstrate the skills of local craftsmen through the emerging structure. From ordinary materials that grow around, quality work could create something valuable.
Caminada illustrated the strength of David in his fight against Goliath by showing when the Swiss telecommunications giant Swisscom wanted to build a telephone booth in the village (1997), but none of the booths they offered appealed to the residents, so they had Caminada design their own, and Swisscom paid for it fully. Additionally, the booth was not only used for making phone calls, but also for meetings and gatherings, something that today’s mobile generation can hardly understand. Similarly, the sawmill in Vrin (1995) originates from the simple consideration that the local wood cut directly in the village is better than in the supermarket, but above all, it provides local jobs just like the local stables (1994) and butcher's shop (1998), where animals are raised without stress, slaughtered, and sold right away.
The most respected of Caminada's projects in Vrin is the Room of the Dead (Stiva da morts, 2002). After all, discussions about its form and subsequent use took a long six years. It is a massive wooden structure painted white, where the deceased are displayed for three days and are then buried in the nearby cemetery. Caminada's parents were also displayed at home according to Catholic traditions after their death. After discussions with citizens on what all should take place in the house, a white 'Totenstube' resting on a stone foundation was created on the slope between the village and the cemetery. The intention was to offer a space for a final farewell and at the same time to rid oneself of the fear of death. The lower floor houses the coffin, while the upper floor features a common living room with a kitchen.
Caminada admits that after nearly two decades of his work in Vrin, the village is complete for some time and he is now looking around the surroundings. He got the commission for the girls' boarding school at the monastic school in Disentis (2001-04) through a competition. It differs from his previous work in scale and materials used. The boarding school is not made of solid wood like the houses in Vrin but of gray plastered masonry. For the first time, he also had the opportunity to work with concrete, from which he plastically shaped the communication core with staircases, an elevator, and 'nooks' for sitting, modeled on Chillida's sculptures. The original building under the baroque façade of the Benedictine monastery was replaced with a new boarding school with three dozen rooms designed to evoke a representative sense of safety of home. In Caminada's predominantly male studio, they had to empathize with the needs of teenage girls (14-18 years) and prepared private sitting spaces for them in 'cubbies' by the windows, in addition to common areas. He gained the trust of the Benedictine monks, so they later entrusted him with the renovation of the nearby stables, where students can also go to relax and recharge their everyday experiences. The idea that good things can only arise in good places is not revolutionary, but it is necessary to continuously affirm it, as in the case of the cheese aging cellar project, where Caminada built a pleasant, rounded space from stone for quiet ventilation and undisturbed cheese ripening.
When visiting Zumthor's spa in Vrin, you might find time to also visit the village center, where Caminada designed the reconstruction and expansion of the Alpina hotel (2001). You must demonstrate a somewhat greater sporting effort if you wish to see the expansion of the mountain hut Terri in Greina (2008), located at an altitude of 2170 meters. Members of the local tourist association lent a hand when they collected enough stone from the surroundings, which was then used to build the rounded, massive walls of the accommodation facility.
At a lookout tower, you usually expect a far view. The low wooden tower Reussdelta in Seedorf (2012), on the other hand, is located on a plateau by the lakeshore. Its primary goal was not to offer panoramas but to craftily engage local apprentices. The primary structure made of white larch is complemented by basket weaving from willow twigs. The hut in Domat/Ems (2013) is to serve local foresters. The material was predetermined, but Caminada could choose any place in the forest to build without needing a permit. The structure rises from the forest with its shape. The only source of heat is central stoves, which do take a while to heat up but, in return, create a pleasant atmosphere full of radiant warmth. Through the use of wood, Caminada wanted to point out that there is no division into good or bad timber but rather to find a way where it can be correctly applied. The house showcases the qualities of wood in all its forms (from sturdy logs on the floor through massive columns to acoustically woven ceilings).
Among his latest projects, he also presented a draft of the redevelopment of the Am Brunnen inn in Valendas (2014), which he plans to complete this year. The village, which has one of the largest wooden fountains in Europe, decided to support community life by expanding the building, not merely framing an attractive view of the square with fountains, but by clearly defining the space between the interior and exterior.
The conclusion of the lecture was dedicated to his teaching method at ETH, where he is currently engaging his students in the differences between 'Typus and Topos'. Along with Gion Caminada's wife, his ETH assistant and a visiting postgraduate student from Japan accompanied him on his trip to the Czech Republic. Caminada strives to pass professional tools to his students, strengthen their uniqueness, not impose any particular building style, but rather encourage them to remain critical of themselves. In a time of overwhelming visual perception, he does not resist, provided they arise from their real causes. He encourages students to approach individual assignments with openness and without bias. On the academic ground, he is also working on rules that should practically serve in revitalizing similar alpine areas like Vrin. He is pleased when students break away from purely artistic or scientific positions, so they do not start with beautiful forms but with fundamental questions. He tries to provide them with enough foundational experiences so that they do not overly rely on specialists with the belief that they will solve everything for them, while also calming their desire to provoke too much attention from the outside.
I believe that after viewing the Prague lecture and the exhibition in České Budějovice 'Creating Places', many architecture enthusiasts will find their way to the mountain valley of Vrin during this year's holidays.