Valerio Olgiati is known as one of the most important exponents of Swiss contemporary architecture. In the present forth volume of the series edition archithese, Olgiati answers questions posed to him about the social responsibility of the architect, the

Die Publikation beschreibt anschaulich wie der Architekt Olgiati seine Projekte entwickelt, welche Parameter seinen Entwurfsprozess beeinflussen und aus welchen intellektuellen Kontext er wirkt. Sie bietet damit einen sehr personlichen Einblick in das Wirken des Graubundner Architekten, ebenso wie in sein architektonisches Selbstverstandnis."

Soccer stadiums, airports, theaters, museums – it falls to very few architects to tackle spectacular building tasks like these. The everyday work of most architects is more often focused on "manageable" projects like the renovation, remodeling, or rebuilding of single- and multi-family houses, schools, and offices. Whatever the nature of the building task, interior construction is always a significant design and qualitative challenge that calls for highly detailed technical expertise. After all, it affects the realm that will be brought to life and utilized by the user when the task is finished, and whose aesthetic and functional serviceability will be put to the test each and every day. The Interior Construction Manual supports planners in their daily work as a practical planning aid and reference work with the relevant standards, guidelines, reference details, and constructional solutions, all illustrated by built example projects. It brings together the crucial facts on all aspects of interior construction and presents the key fundamentals of building physics, fire protection, interior construction systems, and openings. In addition, it offers concrete tips on integrated planning approaches, energy and sustainability issues, materials used in interior construction, hazardous substances, and dealing with building services and light planning.

Architecture in Dialogue with an Activated Ground sets out to validate the role of the unreasonable in the design process. Using case study projects, architect Urs Bette gives an insight into the epistemological processes of his creative practice, and unveils the strategies he deploys in order to facilitate the poetic aspects of architecture within a discourse whose evaluation parameters predominantly involve reason. Themes discussed include the emergence of space from the staged opposition between the architectural object and the site, and the relationship between emotive cognition and analytic synthesis in the design act. In both cases, there is a necessary engagement with forms of ‘unreasonable’ thought, action or behaviours. By arguing for the usefulness and validity of the unreasonable in architecture, and by investigating the performative relationship between object and ground, Bette contributes to the discourse on extensions, growth and urban densification that tap into local histories and voices, including those of the seemingly inanimate – the architecture itself and the ground it sits upon – to inform the site-related production of architectural character and space. In doing so, he raises debates about the values pursued in design approval processes, and the ways in which site-relatedness is both produced and judged.