Willy Boesiger

Willy Boesiger (born May 15, 1904 in Langenthal ; died December 6, 1990 in Zollikon ) was a Swiss architect and publisher of Le Corbusier's complete works.

Live and act

After completing an apprenticeship as a draftsman, Boesiger studied under Hector Egger at the Burgdorf Technical Center , where he graduated in 1925. After working with Emile Wolf in Strasbourg , he went to Paris in 1927 , where he initially worked for André Lurçat , but soon moved to Le Corbusier's office . In addition, he was already planning the new construction of his father's furniture factory in Langenthal, Bösiger AG, as well as a standardized double apartment building next to the company premises.

With their plan libre , the roof garden, the pilotis , ribbon windows and cubic forms, these early buildings already reflected the preoccupation with Le Corbusier's ideas that accompanied him throughout his life. As early as 1929 he began to publish his oeuvre complète , for which he won over the Zurich publisher Hans Girsberger. This work, completed in 1965 and ended in eight volumes, has become one of the key publications of international modernism . From 1951 he also published Richard Neutra's work in three volumes . In 1980, ETH Zurich awarded him an honorary doctorate for his editorial work .

In 1930 Boesiger moved to Zurich , where he opened his office. In 1935 he acquired a building there on Limmatquai , in which he subsequently planned the avant-garde Café Select , Galerie 16 and the studio cinema north-south . Otherwise Boesiger mainly planned residential buildings, mostly single-family houses.

Works (selection)

buildings

• Bösiger furniture factory , Langenthal 1928
• Standard house, duplex, Langenthal 1928
• Expansion of the Bösiger furniture factory , Langenthal 1930
• House Bührer , Feldmeilen 1932
• Café Select , Zurich 1935
• Studio cinema north-south , Zurich 1935
• Rütti-Morand house , Langnau am Albis 1945
• Hotz House , Baar 1954
• Haus Hüttner , Zollikon 1956
• Hunziker House , Zurich 1956
• Groebli House , Zurich 1957
• Lüthi-Ming house , Bonstetten 1959
• Fritz House , Egg 1962
• Leisinger House , Küsnacht 1963
• Forch primary school , schoolhouse extension, Zurich-Forch 1964
• House Barth , Altendorf 1965

Fonts

• Le Corbusier, œuvre complète. 8 volumes. Zurich 1929–1965.
• Richard Neutra, Buildings and Projects. 3 volumes. Zurich 1951–1966.
• Le Corbusier. Studio paperback, Zurich 1972.

literature

• Michael Hanack: Boesiger, Willy. In: Isabelle Rucki and Dorothee Huber (eds.): Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland - 19./20. Century. Birkhäuser, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-7643-5261-2 . P. 68 f.