For the first time, the Swiss Pavilion has won the top prize at the Venice Architecture Biennale - the Golden Lion. It scooped the award for “Svizzera 240: House Tour”, focusing on optimal living quarters. The empty Swiss apartment features rooms of various dimensions, making visitors feel either like a midgets or giants. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) Another first: the government-funded Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia, held a competition to choose the Swiss contribution. The winners, selected from 80 competitors, were Alessandro Bosshard, Li Tavor, Matthew van der Ploeg and Ani Vihervaara from the Federal Institute for Technology in Zurich. (ETHZ). They have worked together since 2015 and live in Zurich. Question of perspective Their "House Tour" seems to be just an empty apartment, but as Pro Helvetia project leader Marianne Burki explains: "The interior scenes are constructed on a range of different scales and spliced together, creating a labyrinthine sequence of interior ...
