At the 19th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia, the Swiss Pavilion presents the exhibition “Endgültige Form wird von der Architektin am Bau bestimmt.” (“The final form will be defined by the architect on site.”), curated by Annexe — a collective of architects composed of Elena Chiavi, Kathrin Füglister, Amy Perkins, Myriam Uzor, with artist Axelle Stiefel.
Reimagining Architectural Legacy
The title is a direct quote from Swiss architect Lisbeth Sachs (1914–2002), one of the first registered female architects in Switzerland. Her note, made in 1958 during the planning of her Kunsthalle for the Swiss Exhibition for Women’s Work (SAFFA), emphasized a responsive, site-specific approach to architectural form. The curators build on this statement to ask: What if Sachs, rather than Bruno Giacometti, had designed the Swiss Pavilion in Venice?
By reactivating Sachs’ spatial vision, the exhibition brings her under-recognized contributions into dialogue with the existing structure in the Giardini — itself designed by Giacometti. This historical juxtaposition offers a critical reflection on gender, authorship, and the construction of architectural legacy.
By reactivating Sachs’ spatial vision, the exhibition brings her under-recognized contributions into dialogue with the existing structure in the Giardini — itself designed by Giacometti. This historical juxtaposition offers a critical reflection on gender, authorship, and the construction of architectural legacy.
Architectural Intervention and Spatial Memory
The installation is both physical and conceptual. Inspired by Sachs’ radial floor plan and inclusive design philosophy, the curators reconstruct selected elements from her original Kunsthalle using alternative materials: concrete is translated into wood, while light is reimagined as sound. A site-specific sound installation transforms the pavilion into a resonant environment, where visitors are invited to engage with both memory and material through listening.
This approach creates a fragmented but immersive “resounding architecture” that explores the presence and absence of women in architectural discourse. Through field recordings, conversations, and auditory compositions, the pavilion becomes a space of shared agency — where visitors reflect on architecture not as a fixed object, but as a living, open-ended process.
This approach creates a fragmented but immersive “resounding architecture” that explores the presence and absence of women in architectural discourse. Through field recordings, conversations, and auditory compositions, the pavilion becomes a space of shared agency — where visitors reflect on architecture not as a fixed object, but as a living, open-ended process.
Fiction as Research, Sound as Structure
The curators approach the exhibition as a “productive fiction,” using speculative reconstruction to revisit a project that existed only briefly. The result is not a replica, but a conceptual re-inhabitation. The installation is supported by research from the Sachs archive at ETH Zurich, and is accompanied by the publication Lisbeth Sachs: Animate Architecture (gta Verlag), the English edition of Rahel Hartmann Schweizer’s monograph.
Public Program and Collaborations
The exhibition is commissioned by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council, and includes a parallel public program. Highlights include Pavilion Days (October 9–10) and the inaugural Lisbeth Sachs Convention (October 10–11). A digital editorial collaboration with e-flux Architecture, titled Phantasma, will run throughout the Biennale, featuring essays that expand on the themes of the pavilion.
Photo: Installation view of «Endgültige Form wird von der Architektin am Bau bestimmt.»curated by Elena Chiavi, Kathrin Füglister, Amy Perkins, Axelle Stiefel and Myriam Uzor at the Pavilion of Switzerland at the Biennale Architettura 2025. © Keystone-SDA/Gaëtan Bally