Johannes Schweizer

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Johannes E. Schweizer (born February 18, 1901 in Glarus ; † April 9, 1983 ibid) was a Swiss garden architect. Alongside Gustav Ammann and the Mertens brothers , he was one of the most important representatives of the architectural garden in Switzerland before he turned to the residential garden style in the 1930s .

Career and work

Johann Schweizer was born in Glarus as the son of a horticultural entrepreneur. After graduating from high school, he began studying engineering in Berlin and completed a one-year internship with the garden architect Röhnick in Dresden, where he came into contact with the architecture of German Expressionism. Project sketches from around 1920 are characterized by a crystalline design language and expressionistic colors; Schweizer's early work is exemplary of the formal diversity of the architectural garden. At the same time Schweizer designed simple gardens in the style of the New Building , traditional cottage gardens and representative villa gardens.

In 1924 he returned to Switzerland and began working as a garden architect in his father's company. In 1936 he opened his own planning office in Basel and in 1956 also took over his father's company. In addition to numerous private house gardens and public facilities, he also realized various exhibition gardens: in 1937 the rose garden for the World Exhibition in Paris, in 1939 special gardens for the Landi . Among other things, he designed a model cemetery on the G 59. He was also present again with a cemetery design at Grün 80 in Basel. Schweizer was also active in research and became the leading representative of the cemetery reform, which was characterized by “simplicity and equality before death”. In 1956 he published his dissertation on the subject of "Kirchhof und Friedhof". Schweizer created a total of more than 70 cemeteries.

literature

  • Annemarie Bucher: From landscape garden to garden landscape: garden art between 1880 and 1980 in the archive for Swiss garden architecture and landscape planning . vdf Hochschulverlag AG, Zurich 1996.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Swiss, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schweizer, Johannes E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss garden architect
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Glarus
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1983
Place of death Glarus