Veranstaltungen

The workshop proposes to study the transformation of the Swiss territory in light of concrete, from the latter half of the 19th century to the present day, from the first feats of civil engineering to contemporary major rail, road, and energy infrastructures. In particular, it aims to retrace how various structures built independently of one another (dams, bridges, bunkers, as well as storage depots, and housing) came to constitute, in the course of the 20th century, an interdependent infrastructure network covering the Swiss territory in its entirety and encompassing everything in its path, from artificial networks (energy, transport) to natural ones (waterways), from the built environment to topography.

The workshop will bring together national and international scholars from the fields of history, history of architecture, history of technology, and social history. The first day of the symposium will be devoted to methodological questions, covered by international experts, followed by a panel that will open the field to current research on concrete. The second day will propose a broad-ranging survey on key studies in Switzerland.