Hommage:Roger Diener

Diener & Diener Architekten

In the past 30 years Roger Diener has accomplished a quiet revolution. On the strength of his suggestions and projects, he has managed to silently change the course of architectural thought and discussion, thus creating new grids for deciphering the reality of the city.

In 1925 Heinrich Tessenow wrote (1) that that on the exterior we should not be too generous, that our choice of quiet colours and forms should be in favour of the urban, in favour of the community. The strength of their familiarity and neutrality would thus be equal to the strength of the love we bear for the urban.

In the light of this thought, the work of Roger Diener * can be understood as the absolute inquiry into urban architecture. His buildings give substance to the city. In a positive way they become the material that completes it. His architectural vocabulary and the material means he uses are plain and simplified in synthesis. The meaning of his shapes isn't themed on the specificity of the site or the function of the building.

Concrete walls painted in their mass, windows, drawn as openings in the walls with dimensions such that the buildings can't be easily defined or categorized: walls with windows or framework. Within this context, the characteristics of his building can be defined as ordinary, sober, elegant etc.

His is an architecture that rather than searching and rushing to discover something impressive or different, is based on the principle that perception is always the perception of differences.
The work of Roger Diener is based on the differentiation that makes for every building to be read either separately as "unique", or as part of the city as a "universal". This game is called "city" and is strange.

If we are to believe Bernard Huet (2), the meanings of architecture and of the city are mutually exclusive if we consider architecture to be a work of art, in its 19th century definition.
The contradiction that B. Huet expresses, i.e of "architecture versus the city" is annulled in the works of Diener & Diener which open the debate of "architecture as ally of the city" with rules of social relevance, unlike the works of Herzog & de Meuron, based in part on the dialogue in favour of art.

Within the noise and chatter of contemporary architectural debate, the practice of Diener & Diener has introduced a point of reference, of quiet and of expertise.
Concentrating on his discipline he continues to renew, following the course he has drawn.

Roger Diener's buildings deserve great consideration and respect.

Dimitri Papadaniel

1) Heinrich Tessenow, Die äussere Farbe der Häuser in H. Tessenow, Geschriebenes, Braunschweig, 1982.
2)Bernard Huet, "L'architecture contre la ville" in AMC, n° 14, 1986, p. 10/13

 

 

Apartment Buildings Hammerstrasse, Basel 1978 – 1981

 

Apartment Buildings St. Alban–Tal, Basel 1981 – 1986 (1st prize, Competition)

 

Training and Conference Centre Viaduktstrasse, Basel 1985 – 1994

 

 

Gmurzynska Gallery, Cologne 1988 – 1991

 

 

Extension to the Centre Pasqu’Art, Biel 1995 – 1999 (1st prize, Competition)

 

 

Hotel Schweizerhof, Migros Supermarket, Migros School, Lucerne 1995 – 2000 (1st prize, Competition)

 

 

Swiss Embassy, Berlin, Germany 1995 – 2000 (1st prize, Competition)

 

 

Presentation of the ’Guest of Honour 1998 Switzerland’ at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt am Main 1998

 

 

Mobimo Tower, Zurich 2002 – 2011

 

 

Novartis Campus Forum 3, Basel 2002 – 2005
Competition: 1st prize, in Collaboration with: Helmut Federle and Gerold Wiederin

 

 

Music House for Instrumental Practice and Choral Rehearsal, Einsiedeln 2006 – 2010

Duration
Lecture on 25 February in Athens, 19:30

Place
Athens, Greece
Benaki Museum

Roger Diener

Roger Diener, born in 1950, established the firm of Diener & Diener in 1980 and thus continued the firm established in 1948 by his father, Marcus Diener. Diener & Diener Architects have been a joint-stock company since 2002, with registered offices in Basel and Berlin and, currently, a staff of 55.
Roger Diener has been teaching at ETH Zurich, ETH Studio Basel, Contemporary City Institute, since 1999. In 2002, the Académie Française awarded its Architecture Award to Roger Diener for his oeuvre, and in 2009 he received the Meret Oppenheim Prize.

Internationally known works include a block for athletes at the Olympic Village in Turin, Italy (2006), the Teachers' Training Centre at the University of Malmö, Sweden (2005), THE Forum 3 Novartis Campus in Basel, Switzerland (2005), the Swiss Embassy in Berlin, Germany (2000), residential buildings on Java Island Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2000), Hotel Schweizerhof and Migros in Lucerne, Switzerland (2000), CentrePasquArt, an art museum in Bienne, Switzerland, (1999), the hall of Switzerland as guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Germany (1998), and the Warteck Brewery residential buildings in Basel, Switzerland (1996).
Master plans were developed, for instance, for the Drogdokken harbour site in Antwerp, Belgium (2004-), the Maag Site in Zurich, Switzerland (2000-), the industrial port in Malmö, Sweden (1997), and the ABB site in Baden, Switzerland (1993).

Selection of current projects: an extension of the Museum of Natural Science of Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany (-2010), residential and office buildings for Ville de Boulogne Billancourt, France (-2010), the Stücki Shopping Centre in Basel, Switzerland (-2010), the City Park office buildings in Basel, Switzerland (-2010), the Kattendijkdok residential buildings in Antwerp, Belgium (-2009), the Musée de la Shoah in Drancy, France (-2011), the Mobimo Tower on the Maag site in Zurich, Switzerland (-2011), and the Market Hall Tower in Basel, Switzerland (-2011).

Roger Diener

1950 Born in Basel
1970-1975 Studied Architecture at ETH Zurich, Switzerland
1976 Joined the architects' firm of Marcus Diener Architect in Basel
since 1980 Partner at Diener & Diener Architects, Basel, Switzerland
1985 Guest lecturer at EPF Lausanne, Switzerland
1987-1989 Professor of Design and Architectural Theory at EPF Lausanne, Switzerland
1989-1990 Guest lecturer at Harvard University in Cambridge, USA
1992 Guest lecturer at the 3rd Vienna Seminar of Architecture, Vienna, Austria
1993 Guest lecturer at Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1994 Guest lecturer at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark
since 1999 Professor of Architecture and Design at ETH Zurich, Co-Founder ETH Studio Basel
2002 Grande Médaille d'Or d'Architecture
Académie d'Architecture, Paris, France
2005-2008 Member of the National Monuments' Council (Landesdenkmalrat), Berlin, Germany
2009 Meret Oppenheim Prize