#49 Christ & Gantenbein (CH), Arquitetura Entre Vistas ABROAD

Today, we travel to Zurich to meet Emanuel Christ, who, together with Christoph Gantenbein, founded Christ & Gantenbein in 1998. With them, I learned that “form is communication”. As Aristotle would say it as a syllogism: “Form is language. Language is communication. Therefore, form is communication.” But can we truly communicate if we invent our own language? Or if we aim for anonymity in the forms we use? For Emanuel Christ, a good building speaks, “a good building speaks with other buildings; a good building speaks about other buildings.” Architecture, he argues, is a civic art, “it belongs to everybody. So please speak a language that can be understood by the majority of people, and at the same time, make it surprising, make it fresh, make it original.” “Form is never an isolated thing per se.” It is typological, compositional, tectonic - a synthesis of thought and construction. Each project contributes to the evolution of a type: “the best projects have a clear typological principle that produces exceptions and frictions.” For Christ, architecture is dialogue between past and present, the general and the specific, the universal and the local. Always familiar, yet always new. Guest: Emanuel Christ (Zurich, Switzerland) Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal) Upload your references to: arquiteturaentrevistas.com Instagram @arquiteturaentrevistas Follow for more thoughts on architecture.

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#49 Christ & Gantenbein (CH), Arquitetura Entre Vistas ABROAD is an episode from Arquitetura Entre Vistas by Ana Catarina Silva.

This episode is 01:09:39 long.

This episode was published on Dec 13, 2025.

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