Bernhard Hoesli

Bernhard Hoesli (1923–1984) was a Swiss architect and collage artist.

Hoesli was born in Glarus, Switzerland from a German-Swiss father and a French mother.

He later moved at an early age with his family to live in Zürich.

After graduating from high school with a mathematics degree he joined ETH Zurich where he obtained a degree in architecture in 1944.

In 1947 Hoesli moved to Paris, France to join architect Fernand Léger's team and later was accepted by Le Corbusier as an assistant.

In 1948 he was sent to La Plata, Argentina to supervise the construction of the Curutchet House.

A year later, he was appointed to take charge of the Unité d'Habitation project in Marseille.

Hoesli moved to the United States in 1951.

He first joined the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin as a professor of architecture.

It was there where he was joined by architects Colin Rowe, John Hejduk and Werner Seligmann among others to form the Texas Rangers group of architects.

He then returned to teach at ETH Zurich.

In 1959, which Hoesli hails as the year Modern Architecture became teachable worldwide, many opinions on architectural instruction changed.

In that year, the year of the death of Frank Lloyd Wright, his Guggenheim museum was completed, as were the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

At this point, Hoesli felt free to discuss the procedure of design with students through pedagogy.

His design problems, which "were so formulated that the student had to solve tasks within a given framework of requirements and achieve precise results", were arranged by types.

The types of problems were created in order to instruct the students in a specific skill through their own self-discovery with trial and error.

Hoesli relates this process to the Socratic method, in which students are constantly faced with important questions and debates.

When Hoesli began teaching architecture at the ETH in 1959, some of his duties included 'looking after' fifth-year students.

At this point, Hoesli realized that most of the fifth-years had an understanding of design as being dependent upon a flash of inspiration rather than a building of design steps upon each other.

These students completed projects that had no room for growth or adaptation, and they would not accept criticism or suggestions for improvement.

Hoesli felt that this approach was counterproductive and set about changing the way the entire curriculum was structured.

Also at the time Hoesli began teaching at the ETH, the design process revolved around different building types.

Students would complete an assignment from a specific building group.

"Design began with a garden house, then continued with a holiday home, family dwelling, then on to a multi-family dwelling, then on to a multi-storey block, school building and shopping centre, until at the end of the studies a church or theatre was ventured upon."

Of the contrary opinion, Hoesli believed that steps of design were more important than mere function.

He saw transparency and wise space definition as the ultimate goals for architectural work.

"Transparency," Hoesli wrote, "frees us, because we allow it, to see buildings and structures in connections and independent of the differences between 'historical' and 'modern'."

He also articulated that transparency as referenced with the modern tradition became an important tool for instruction in the schools of architecture throughout the world.

Further, Hoesli felt that students should have the opportunity to branch out in creativity through a more structured process than was present at the ETH.

He felt the structure of the ETH curriculum at the time was too dependent on chance and the fleeting feelings of a fine art mentality rather than a practical design process.

After his University of Texas experience, Hoesli's leadership skills and persuasive discussions were at their peak.

He was able to formulate new course structures and implement them with ease.

He also possessed the wherewithal and energy to pursue the course of action he saw as best for the schools.

At the time Hoesli decided to alter the ETH"s pedagogy, he was delighted to discover a common Modern manifesto arising as society pronounced Modern architecture dead. He stated, "In order that the Architecture Department of the ETH can reach the standard of international architectural development, the introduction into architectural design had to be consciously and systematically based on Modern Architecture and the work of its protagonists." He saw the three main protagonists as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe. His obsession with the Modernist tradition led him to defend it after it became passe and the public pronounced it dead. He suggested that not only did students need to survive the Modern movement, but embrace it as history. He also felt that the Cubist and De Stijl painters had similar perceptions of the continuity of space and drew inspiration from them.

He commented profusely on the Modernist concept of continuous space in both writings and lectures regarding his three protagonists as well as many others.

He used Modernism as a source of history and theory for his lessons.

"First", it is written of his changes in the ETH, "it was decided what should be taught. Then, from this, situations and programmes were formulated. The student sees himself confronted by a problem. He deals with it, makes his own experiences, and on the basis of a review of the theme in the lecture and discussion, it is possible for him, at the same time, to understand what he has experienced."

Hoesli began his curriculum overhaul with the basic design course.

In his opinion, "the basic course should allow for the architecturally still "unskilled" people to recognize: what an architectural idea is; how it results, how it can be drawn out; upon what it is based; and how it can be developed, treated."

This theory was put into action with several design exercises.