Gottfried Semper (1803-1879) Architecture and Science Hall, 1 November 2003 to 25 January 2004       William Unger, portrait of Gottfried Semper, etching, 1871 © TU Munich's architecture museum

Even his contemporaries celebrated Gottfried Semper as the «Michelangelo of the 19th century». His 200th birthday this year has prompted a major retrospective in the famous architect's honour. Like no other architect of his day, he combined a wide range of building activity with a major theoretical work. His magnum opus on architectural and cultural theory, «Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten» became a key text for arts and crafts reform and architectural theory. The exhibition, planned in co-operation with the ETH Zurich's gta institute and the TU Munich's architecture museum, will be mounted by burkhalter sumi architects. The exhibition and the catalogue give a comprehensive view of the work created by Semper in his eventful life in Paris, Dresden, London, Zurich and Vienna. Semper designed pioneering buildings like the «Semperoper» in Dresden, the main ETH building in Zurich, the «Greek» town hall in Winterthur and monumental large-scale structures like the Kaiserforum in Vienna.

Gottfried Semper, ETH, perspective from south west, around 1859 © Institut gta, ETH Zürich, Archive

Project manager: René Dalucas and Dr. Sonja Hildebrand

Images for the press:
ETH: Gottfried Semper, Polytechnikum in Zürich (ETH), around 1859, © Institut gta, ETH Zürich, Archiv

Stadthaus Winterthur, (1865-1870), photo by J. Linck, © Architekturmuseum der TU München

Gottfried Semper, portrait by William Unger, etching, 1871, © Architekturmuseum der TU München

World exhibition: Canada on the World exposition 1851 in London, designed by Gottfried Semper, in: Dickinson's Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851, London 1854
© Institut gta, ETH Zürich, Archiv

"laundry ship" Treichler, sketch of 1862: Model 1:20. model constructor: Burkhalter Sumi Architekten Zürich. photo: Heinrich Helfenstein, Zürich

Dresdener Oper, color and black-white (© Institut gta, ETH Zürich, Archiv)

Sternwarte: image no 1., image no. 2 (© Institut gta, ETH Zürich, Archiv)