Interweaving Material and Immaterial Wood Crafting Processes in the City of Zurich

Interweaving Material and Immaterial Wood Crafting Processes in the City of Zurich

Interweaving Material and Immaterial Wood Crafting Processes in the City of Zurich

TYPE Material Commons
STATUS Defunct Ongoing
KEYWORDS Appropriation, Care-taking, Community, Experiment, Self-organisation, Zürich
PERIOD Pre-Industrial until Today
COMMONERS Woodworkers, DIYers, KMUs
INSTITUTIONS Guilds, Swiss Timber Construction Association (Holzbau Schweiz), Dynamo, Robinsonplaygrounds, an Interweaving Institution (Project for the City)
COMMONING PRACTICES Trees, Forests and Knowledge
Arno Bruderer
Summary

This work began with an attempt to understand how the process of transforming wood in the architecture of the city of Zurich has evolved over time, what communities, institutions and cultures have emerged around it, and how knowledge and attitudes related to wood have been passed on across generations.
Through literature and archival research, a material and immaterial common-pool resource and four case studies in the city of Zurich could be defined to narrow down these investigations to the following research question: To what extent can contemporary wood crafting processes in the city of Zurich contribute to its common habitat?
To answer this question, the work compares material and immaterial wood crafting logics in the city of Zurich based on two case studies spanning a period from pre-industrial guilds to the present day and, in doing so, tries to identify and understand moments of commonality in them.
Based on the results of this research, an attempt is made to design an institution that interweaves material and immaterial wood craft processes in the city of Zurich, oscillating between the medieval guild and the contemporary Jugendhaus Dynamo. The considerations of the work are directed to the commoners, woodworkers, DIYers and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and examine the way they use the defined material and immaterial common-pool resources.

References

Krebs, Werner. Alte Handwerksbräuche. Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Schweiz. Schweiz. Gesellschaft für Volkskunde, 1933.

Christoph Schindler. Ein architektonisches Periodisierungsmodell Anhand fertigungstechnischer Kriterien, dargestellt am Beispiel des Holzbaus. ETH Zürich, 2013.

Jos Murer. Murerplan. Zürich. 1576. Wood engraving. 

A.R. Emy. Traité de l‘art de la charpenterie. Paris. Carillan-Gœury, 1837.

Formafantasma. Cambio – Baum, Holz, Mensch. Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, 2022. Exhibition. 

Landesmuseum Zürich. Im Wald: Eine Kulturgeschichte. Landesmuseum Zürich. 2022. Exhibition.

Images

Commoning and Experimenting on a Playground

Hänssler. Robinsonspielplatz 1954 eingeweiht. Photo: Date unknown. Baugeschichtliches Archiv.

Carpenters Work Yard in the former Tree Garden of the Fraumünster Abbess 

Jos Murer. Murerplan. Zürich. 1576. Woodcut.

Wood drifting in the Sihl

Johann Füssli. Die Sihlbrücke im 18.Jhr. mit St.Jakob in des Waser’s Gut. ca. 1710.  ZB Zürich. Drawing.

Extract from a Hiking Book (Walz) with Town Stamp

Werner Krebs. Alte Handwerksbräuche. Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Schweiz. 1933. Print.