Oskar Burri

Oskar Burri (born January 16, 1913 in Malters , † April 23, 1985 in Zumikon ) was a Swiss architect and interior designer .

Life and work

The cabinet making apprenticeship that Burri completed in Lucerne in 1934 shaped his professional vision with regard to material handling and assembly throughout his life. From 1933 to 1936 he attended the interior design class under Wilhelm Kienzle at the Zurich School of Applied Arts . This was followed by a longer stay in Vienna, internships in Oslo and with Le Corbusier in Paris from 1937 to 1938.

When the war broke out, he returned to Switzerland and, in addition to his work as an architect in his native Central Switzerland, was a student at the ETH in Zurich in the early 1940s , with Hans Hofmann among others.

In 1942 he was one of the ten founding members and the first president of the Association of Swiss Interior Architects .

He designed a contribution to the exhibition Our Apartment for the Swiss Werkbund together with Otto Glaus . With him and Jacques Schader he entered into an office community in Zurich in 1946, and they won first prize in the competition for the Zurich Women's Hospital. In 1951, together with Jacques Schader, he developed a minimal, quick-to-assemble pentagonal house that was intended for emergency accommodation, holiday resorts, etc. A prototype was created in Schwarzenberg.

The design of holiday homes, hotels and training centers, especially in Central Switzerland, then became a mainstay of his professional career. He built the Mooshütte holiday complex, which he himself planned and financed , for a total of twenty years; in the late 1970s, he built the Haslizentrum training center in Hasliberg for the Swiss National Bank, and the Jungfrau Lodge for Neue Warenhaus AG , for which he also planned business extensions in Murren.

However, he also received a large part of his orders from private clients, for whom he built their own homes. These are characterized as "often built with limited resources, always related to people, mostly conceived from the kitchen as a central location". He built many of his houses for artist friends who also owned their studios there.

Works (selection)

The most important buildings by Oskar Burri according to the necrology of the Swiss construction newspaper

• Residential building Halde 12, Malters LU, 1945
• Grotzli , Skihütte, Eigenhal LU; 1945
• Schärme , Ferienhaus, Schwarzenberg LU; 1947
• Furtig , residential building, Schwarzenberg, 1949
• Chrättli , holiday home, Schwarzenberg LU; 1950
• Sommerau , commercial building, Malters LU, 1950
• Single-family house at the Rotsee, 1951
• Bachstelzli , residential building, Meggen, 1951
• Pentagonal studies , prefabricated wooden element construction, 1951
• Residential building Gartenstrasse 7, Malters, 1952
• Clothes yard , commercial building, Malters, 1953
• Reconstruction aid in Macedonia, Greece, on behalf of Swiss European Aid, 1953/1954
• Three residential buildings + Atelier Rebhus, Zumikon ZH, 1955
• Schönisei , holiday home, Sörenberg, 1956
• Kindergarten, Malters, 1958
• Halde residential building, Klingnau AG, 1958
• Tobelhus farmhouse, Zumikon, 1959
• Apartment building, conversion, Steinwiesstrasse 52, Zurich, 1959
• Plumber, workshop and apartment, Emmenstrasse 3, Malters, 1960
• Medical practice and residential building, Beckenried 1961
• Renovation Rustico, Scaiano TI, 1961
• Conversion of farmhouse Zumikon ZH, 1962
• Kindergarten with Samitätshilfestelle, Klingnau, 1963
• Bugmann & Schifferli furniture factory, Döttingen, 1963/1964
• House and studio, Maur ZH, 1963
• Mooshütte , holiday settlement, Schwarzenberg, 1963–1985
• Residential house, Wengi 15, Zumikon ZH, 1964
• Al Eco , holiday homes, Orselina, 1964
• Construction projects and interior organization for Neue Warenhaus AG, Zurich, 1965–1978
• Steiner-Schröter house, Gartenstrasse 5, Malters,
• House of Büren, Bassersdorf ZH
• Jungfrau Lodge , hotel, Murren BE, 1969
• Residential house, Stettbachstrasse 13, Zollikon, 1970
• Hasliberg-Wasserwendi holiday home, Brünig BE, 1970
• Car garage and apartments, Malters, 1971
• Lake view , residential building, Aeugst, 1974
• Residential house with Atelier Rutelli, Bassersdorf, 1975
• Conversion of the dental practice and house in Hammer, Malters 1976
• Hotel Helmhaus , renovation, Zurich, 1977
• Hasli Center , training center with hotel and youth center, Hasliberg, 1978–1980
• Morf-Leimacher double house, Dietlikon, 1981
• Robänkli , residential building, Seegräben, 1981
• Horat house, Lärchenstrasse, Schwyz, 1983
• Reconstruction of apartment building at Holbeinstrasse 7, Basel, 1984
• Conversion of apartment building Wettsteinallee, Basel, 1985
• Alte Post , residential building, Malters, 1985

literature

• Claude Lichtenstein: Burri, Oskar . In: Isabelle Rucki and Dorothee Huber (eds.): Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland - 19./20. Century. Birkhäuser, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-7643-5261-2 . P. 109.
• Hans Dreher, Willi Egli, Waldemar Santi, Jakob Zweifel: The architect Oskar Burri, 1913–1985. Obituary. In: Swiss engineer and architect. Vol. 104 (1986) No. 48 pp. 1249-1257. doi : 10.5169 / seals-76323
• Thomas Stadelmann: "Type furniture, emergency accommodation and tin cans, Oskar Burri's small house", in: archithese, No. 5/1995, pp. 42–44.

supporting documents

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Jakob Zweifel: The architect Oskar Burri, 1913–1985. Obituary in: Swiss engineer and architect. Vol. 104 (1986) No. 48 pp. 1249-1257. doi : 10.5169 / seals-76323
2. ^ Claude Lichtenstein: Burri, Oskar . In: Isabelle Rucki and Dorothee Huber (eds.): Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland - 19./20. Century. Birkhäuser, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-7643-5261-2 . P. 109.
3. ↑ Competition for a gynecological clinic in Zurich. Report in: Schweizerische Bauzeitung. Vol. 128 (1946) No. 3 p. 31 ff.
4. ↑ citymobile | Jungfrau Lodge, residential building with doctor's office. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on May 18, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.