Tracing Women in Swiss ‚Eco-Architecture‘

Today’s narratives on sustainability in architecture are largely framed in technical and economic terms, often disregarding the earlier traditions of “eco-architecture” that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century. Spurred by the oil crisis of 1973 and alarming environmental reports of the time, numerous architects, together with other actors, began to reconsider the house in terms of resources and alternative energy supplies. These early approaches to eco-architecture were strongly intertwined with broader social and political visions, including alternative ways of living, collective housing and critiques of consumerism and modernity.

This thesis hypothesizes that women architects and activists played a central role in the heterogeneous practices of Swiss eco-architecture between 1960 and 1999. The research traces their contributions inductively through micro-histories, analyzing a series of case studies. It further explores how feminist discourses in Switzerland – articulating critiques of housing, labour and the city – resonated with ecological design practices.

Jana von Wyl