Walter Custer

Walter Werner Custer (born September 21, 1909 in Rapperswil ; † May 23, 1992 in Zurich ) was a Swiss architect and planner. As a university lecturer at the ETH Zurich , he taught spatial planning from 1960 to 1980 - based on Swiss issues and those of development cooperation .

Education and career

Custer studied from 1929 at the ETH Zurich and at the Technical University of Berlin (near Poelzig ), he obtained his diploma in 1935 at the ETH with Otto R. Salvisberg . After working in various offices, u. a. with Werner Max Moser and Alvar Aalto , he worked in Zurich from 1940. Custer, whose interest was already in the development of state and regional planning in the 1930s, namely the development of disadvantaged areas, compiled a large number of reports and studies in the regional planning office of the cantonal building authority from 1943 to 1947; he was also involved in 1946 to 1949 active in the Swiss Association for National Planning (VLP). In Switzerland, his focus was mainly on remote mountain areas, and internationally on development cooperation. From 1948 to 1951 there were various work stays in the Third World , mainly on the Indian subcontinent ( Nepal , India and Ceylon ). In 1955 he was involved in the founding of the Swiss Aid Organization for Non-European Areas (later Helvetas ) and served on its central board from 1956 to 1974.

In the early 1950s he founded his own architecture and planning office. After this task was recognized as increasingly urgent as a subject, Custer was appointed to the chair of Werner Max Moser at the ETH as a lecturer for planning in 1958 , before he was appointed the first professor (apl.) For this subject in 1960, from 1971 to In 1980 he was his professor emeritus. In the 1960s, together with others, he set up the Institute for Local, Regional and State Planning (ORL) at the university and, together with Bruno Fritsch , initiated the interdisciplinary postgraduate course on problems in developing countries. Overall, Custer's approach as a committed university lecturer was strongly methodological, geared towards interdisciplinarity, project and problem orientation.

His architectural work consists of almost a dozen buildings, most of which were also published in specialist journals and were often planned together with colleagues. He received the Reynolds Memorial Award from the American Institute of Architects for the facade of the Heberlein machine factory .

Works (selection)

Building planning

• Physics Institute , Technikum Winterthur, 1957–58 (with Hans Suter)
• Primary school with kindergarten in Neubühl , Zurich 1958–60
• Primary school Burgerau , extension, Rapperswil 1959–60 (with Hans Zangger)
• Repair workshop ERZ , Zurich 1959–62
• Thurmatthof settlement , Stans 1965–76 (with Arnold Stöckli)
• Computer center ETH , Zurich 1968–71
• Maschinenfabrik Heberlein , Wattwil 1969–70 (with Fred Hochstrasser and Hans Bleiker)

literature

• Michael Koch: Custer, Walter (Werner). In: Isabelle Rucki and Dorothee Huber (eds.): Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland - 19./20. Century. Birkhäuser, Basel 1998. ISBN 3-7643-5261-2 , p. 240
• Paul Dubach: Prof. Walter Custer on his 65th birthday . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 92 , no. 42 , 1974, pp. 975 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-72496 .
• Wolf Jürgen Reith, Fritz Ryser: Prof. Walter Custer at the age of seventy . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . No. 291 , September 21, 1979, pp. 51 .
• Wolf Jürgen Reith, Fritz Ryser: Considerations in the planning class at the architecture department of the ETH Zurich . In: Werk, Bauen + Wohnen . tape 67 , no. 3 , 1980, p. 6 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-51440 .
• Alfred Roth: Walter Custer in memory . In: Swiss engineer and architect . tape 24 , no. 111 , 1993, pp. 442 f . ( Online ).

Web links

• Michael Koch: WalterCuster. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland , accessed on March 7, 2020 .

supporting documents

1. ^ Paul Dubach: Prof. Walter Custer on his 65th birthday . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 92 , no. 42 , 1974, pp. 976 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-72496 .