„Regressive Architecture Switzerland“ investigates Swiss populist right-wing policy within Switzerland’s architecture and the architectural discourse from 1960 to 2020. It evolves around three main right-wing narratives concerned with architecture and urban design – the heartland, right-wing ecologies and exclusive spaces – and their promotion in Swiss architectural discourse by various actors of or connected to political right-wing parties.
This project is intended to contribute to the study of the ways in which architecture and politics are intertwined, using right-wing populist narrations and networks as a focal point to assess how deeply their politics affect Switzerland’s political and thus built environment. Right-wing populist parties have a long tradition in Switzerland. This constancy and also their success over decades is, in my view, problematic and requires reflection and research on how this right-wing populist presence affects areas outside of politics, for example architecture and built (social) space.