Mountain Blog: Swizterland Unplugged

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Topic #3: The significance of the Swiss Alps and the Gottardo

What was truly significant to the history of Switzerland is the involvement of geographical characteristics. The Alps have been a significant factor to Swiss identity and the unification among people

There are many important things in Swiss Cultures that relates back to the Alps. In my course, we reflected on the Gotthard Tunnel and tourism.

The Swiss mountains were a place of myth before the industrial revolution. Up until the British had discovered the Alps for Alpinism, the mountains of Switzerland stood for a more mythical thoughts. Even the definition of Alps had changed throughout the history, from what used to define the meadows to the modern day representation of the mountains.

This iconic geography of Switzerland became an influence in many different aspects of Swiss identity.

One of the important identity that derived from the alps is national symbol of the Gottardo Tunnel. The scheme to create a trans-national railway have created a major event in history, where all the people of Switzerland, coming from different ethnic back ground had united.

The swiss culture comes from a cultural production of common ideology, and the Swiss alps was a significant material necessary for the creation of Swiss unity.

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Bern, Altstadt

The capital of Switzerland

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Topic 2: The History of Swiss Confederation

The history of Switzerland, for me, was something quite different from history in which I have learned. The key characteristic to the founding of Swiss Confederation was not due to ideological unity or unity from charismatic leader. Many modern state is founded upon the ideology of religion. Even if other factors would have been involved, religion was one of the driving forces of historical division among people.

Switzerland, on the other hand, took a different path  The cantons that eventually became part of Switzerland did not have the same religious ideology. Catholic and Protestant cantons exist randomly within Switzerland. The Sonderbund War happened due to the wave of reformation that took place in the catholic church, which had began from the civil hero, Ulrych Zwingli.

One thing that united the Swiss was the alps. The strategically important geography of central Europe allowed alliances to form in order to protect the area. Since then, up until the defeat at battle of Marignano, the Swiss became one of the main military powers of Europe.

Its rather weird when you compare the history of Switzerland between other neighboring countries like France or Great Britain (England). Of course, conflicts took place among the states. However, there are quite a contrast in the difference.

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Zürich displays the concept of creativity within a space. The modernized building of Prime Tower allows the observation of fusion of old and new aspects of the city.

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Topic 1: City and the funtion of Space

Every City has a distinct layout for the population that lives in an area. Zurich, for instance is an interesting case for assessing these kind of Human-to-Space relationships.

The authors particularly important to this topic was urban analysts, such as Kevin Lynch.

The concept/function of cities that these thinkers introduced, has given me another different perspective to what cities can stand for.

For instance, there are more public spaces in Zurich than many other cities around the world. The significance of public spaces become important when considering the images and the characteristics of the city as a whole.

For instance, the more public spaces, which do not exclude any being, could result in a more open/civil society or perhaps a very dangerous society. And in Zurich, this issue has been a key discourse to city image, as some public spaces are regulated to exclude certain types of people to maintain a clean social image of the city.

Off course images aren't quite true, and that the very famous image of richness in Zurich only applies to the people who have lived in Kreis 1, where the rich Bahnhofstrasse exist as a social place for tourists.

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First day in Zurich

(Seen from Hotel Schweizerhof Zürich)

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Switzerland Summer Semester 2014

So far this summer, I am staying in Switzerland to do my summer session for summer of 2014. The course consists of multiple adventure to many parts of Switzerland, while covouring the history of Switzerland and the numbers of cultural production over the course of its history.

The initial task for me as a student, was to interpret the city of Zurich, from the perspectives of city planning perspective and in historical perspective. Thus, most of the class readings involved around the topic of city-space and culture.