"For me building is a way of life"

Meaningful Architecture in a Globalised World, Gion caminada

“Stiva da morts” by Gion Caminada

“stiva da morts” is the Romansh name for the mortuary.

It’s an intriguing, yet very subtle building, with whitened walls and carefully worked out details. Situated right on the border of the cemetery seems to be hang in between two worlds, life and death. The building itself stands outside, together with the ordinary houses. There are two entrances one of them down from the village, and one from the church and cemetery level.

When I first saw it, actually I thought it was rather a house for the priest, then the famous “stiva da mort”.

“stiva da morts” carefully worked out details

“Stiva da morts” - interior

The mortuary is built with solid wooden logs. Interior, in contrast to the whiten walls of the cold exterior, is kept in the vivid color of the natural wood (fir in this case). This gives a warm home like feeling.

The Interior is divided into three spaces, the upper level has a typical house typology: kitchen and corridor with small bathroom, the third space on the lower level is the mortuary room. This ambiance creates place for traditional domestic mourning. Even if at first the Vriners were suspicious about the use of the typical house typology for the mortuary, after all they are proud for the way it is built and works.

“The Vriners were not particularly bothered about the location of the mortuary. but they did feel provoked when I asked them if they could imagine drinking coffee in the mortuary.(…) The Vriners take pride in their mortuary now, because it works. they allow themselves to be seduced by the architectural idea.”

Meaningful Architecture in a Globalised World, Gion Caminada

…

The mortuary was closed at the time I was there, but fortunately by a nice coincidence I could see the inside. Right on the spot, while I was walking around the building, I noticed a couple taking many photos of the same building - I thought straight away that they were architects, at least a man who kept the camera… I was right;) We had a chat and then we went together to the small village nearby Puzatsch, to visit a small chapel we spotted from the distance - that was actually the place where the road ended. In the small bar, where we had lunch, a woman who served us asked if we had already visited the “stiva da morts”. She told us were we could find the keys to see the inside. she was definitely very proud of the building and the fact that people from all over the world come to see it!

MEANINGFUL ARCHITECTURE, by Gion Caminada

Vrin - this small secluded village became famous thanks to the projects of an architect Gion Caminada. In 1998 he was awarded the Wakker Prize from The Swiss Heritage Society for his full of commitment work for the village and his unique projects realized in the area of Vrin.

"I can not persuade a farmer that he should build a beautiful cowshed. but if the cowshed works well, then it can be beautiful too. In other words, architecture must meet a need"

Meaningful Architetcure in a Globalised world, Gion Caminada

Vrin, stables and butchery “Sut Vitg”, by Gion Caminada

Houses in Vrin, old and new ones.

"In these different places, whether it be Vrin or Appenzell villages, certain building traditions have developed over the centuries, and it is these traditions that have created the images. But the image we see is perhaps not the primary one.(…) If we learn to understand these images behind the images, then we also find out how to think about developing the building tradition. Then it is possible to create diversity and new things within the tradition"

Meaningful Architecture in a Globalised World, Gion Caminada

Traditional old houses in Vrin, diverse details of the facade treatment.

VRIN / CHARM OF THE VILLAGE

Vrin is a small swiss village, situated at the end of Lumnezia Valley, in Graubünden canton.

It is indeed charming and unique!

Beautiful landscape, impressing mountains, the right balance between the small villages and green meadows in between them, create  harmonious, yet diverse “patchwork” in the landscape.

"Identity has become a key concept in the current planning culture debate. Identity is a matter of internal structures and differences. that is to say, the differences and also the boundaries between urban qualities and the periphery have to be clearly drawn"

Meaningful Architecture in a Globalised World, Gion Caminada

SWITZERLAND / GRAUBÜNDEN

Bun di! My first impression of Graubünden countryside - much less populated spacious valleys, with secluded villages and inspiring landscape.

The distances here, even if small in number of kilometers, seems to be bigger then they actually are. Traveling turns out to be much more difficult and expensive (especially for tourists - non holders of special reduction cards) while differences between neighboring villages happens to be intriguing and amazing.

In fact, Graubünden is the largest, easternmost, canton of Switzerland, almost three times bigger then the area of Voralberg with as low population density as ca 27/km2, compared to 143/km2 in the Austrian region.

The cultural diversity of the region is due to three different Swiss ethnic groups living here and three languages regularly spoken; Swiss German, Romansh and Italian. Graubünden remains the only canton where the dialects of the ancient Romansh language are still spoken. So amazing that the language changes from one village to another, even at the distance of 1 km… Graubünden,  Grischun,   Grigioni.

As for architecture, the houses here are more rural, there is more of vernacular architecture, countryside;)

some of the traditional details of facade treatment, like this “scale like” one, are similar to the old style houses from Voralberg.

The modern houses are less common here then they are in Voralberg, less visible, often they are hidden behind the traditional ones.

It happens, that the most extraordinary ones are the proper houses of architects.

For the night, I decided to try the agritourism farm of the familie Walter-Flutsch in Valendas. “Schlaf im stroh!”(“sleeping on the hay”). The old barn tuned out to be transfomed into nice guestroom with bathroom and kitchen;)
It was a nice evening in the good company as the group of canoeing club from Zurich joined the barn.

In the morning, I set out early, due to the lack of buses I walked up and hitch-hiked till Ilanz. From here I took the bus to the beautiful Val Lumnezia, till the very end of this Valley, a small village called Vrin … for some reasons famous among architects;)