“We often invent the future with elements from the past. Lucius Burckhardt and Cedric Price were two great visionaries whose work resonates and inspires new generations in the 21st century.” 

– Hans Ulrich Obrist, February 2014

Both Lucius Burckhardt and Cedric Price are regarded as among the most visionary thinkers of the 20th century, redefining architecture as revolving around people, space and performance.

Lucius Burckhardt was a Swiss political economist, sociologist, art historian and planning theorist, known as the founding father of ‘strollology’—his science of the walk. He pioneered an interdisciplinary analysis of man-made environments, discussing both the visible and invisible aspects of our cities, landscapes, political processes and social relations, as well as the long-term effects of design and planning decisions.

Cedric Price was guided by a fundamental belief that architecture must ‘enable people to think the unthinkable.’ His project Fun Palace (1960–61), conceived as a ‘laboratory of fun’ and ‘university of the streets,’ though never realised, established him as one of the UK’s most innovative and thought-provoking architects.

Obrist’s Lucius Burckhardt and Cedric Price – A stroll through a fun palace radically re-approaches the idea of the national pavilion, reconceiving it as a site for cross-disciplinary, interactive, international engagement. Acknowledging that it is not possible to present the complex practices of Burckhardt and Price through a static display of drawings, Lucius Burckhardt and Cedric Price – A stroll through a fun palace aims for visitors to encounter the architects’ archives performatively. To present the temporary archives, Herzog & de Meuron have devised a site-specific system located in the graphic room of the Swiss Pavilion, aiming to create a new system of knowledge and ideas. 

The idea of an architecture that could take account of time was of central importance to both Price and Burckhardt’s practices, and the exhibition will reflect this aspect of their work. The space will be programmed according to a time-based dramaturgy, creating a changing mise-en-scène and an exhibition in constant motion. The opening days will feature a Marathon event on architecture, landscape design and modes of display. The exhibition will include contributions by Olafur Eliasson, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Dorothea von Hantelmann, Koo Jeong-a, Philippe Parreno, Asad Raza and Tino Sehgal among many more contemporary artists and architects.

Following Burckhardt’s and Price’s critique of the traditional university system, Lucius Burckhardt and Cedric Price – A stroll through a fun palace will function as an architectural school under the leadership of Italian architect Stefano Boeri with Lorenza Baroncelli. 

The project at the Swiss Pavilion is supported by LUMA Foundation and STEO Stiftung

With the collaboration of the Lucius & Annemarie Burckhardt Foundation and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA)