This first monograph on the work of Galli Rudolf Architects presents a selection of their realized buildings at the nexus of urban and topographical design. The Zurich-based firm has built an outstanding range of housing, mixed-use developments and schools. Typological innovation and integrative strategies in preservation of listed historic buildings are hallmarks of their work. With precise framing, complex variation in typologies and generous linking of spaces, Galli Rudolf Architects respond to the current questions of how cities can grow.

Combining a rigorous set of rules with expressive building outlines set the urban scheme for a large development of housing and mixed use on a former industrial site on the outskirts of Zurich. A collaborative housing project in Winterthur, also located on former industrial land, provides space for a multigenerational community. New school buildings as well as refurbishing historic ones, from the late 19th century and post-war modernism, present scope for intervention demanding more than merely formal design, rather requiring a strategic answer about the architect s role.

In their continuous and focused practice of fifteen years, Galli Rudolf Architects have created an impressive body of work which is now presented in an engaging book. The essays and project descriptions not only investigate thoroughly the architects address immanent contemporary issues of community building by design, their framing of space at the urban periphery, and their approach to building preservation and constructive detail. The texts also illuminate the architects education and cultural attitude, strategies in organizing program and space, and their interaction with artists and artistic interventions. Photographs by Helene Binet, Ralph Feiner, Hannes Henz, Dominique Marc Wehrli, and others, and a wealth of plans and diagrams provide the visuals to encounter current topics in architecture and urbanism.

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