Forgotten architecture

This year, Ballenberg will not be focussing on a single relocated museum building, but on one that has been there since before the museum was founded – a former military barracks. For one day, this building will represent the usually temporary and socially neglected barrack-type construction that is nevertheless an integral part of modern society.

In cooperation with ETH Zurich and as part of the A future for whose past? project, Rune Frandsen will talk about his dissertation, which discusses the living conditions and therefore also the housing of the thousands of workers who built the gigantic Grande Dixence hydroelectric power plant in Valais in the 1950s and 1960s.  The Ballenberg barracks will act as both a stage and a gallery. The building is now a common room for the operations team and visitors to the museum will also have the opportunity to take a look inside it over a cup of coffee, tea or squash.

The presentation will take place at 11:30 am and 2:30 pm. In German, English and French.