Throughout the 1950s and 1960s and well into the early 1970s the example of Mies van der Rohe inspired countless younger architects to follow the master’s idiom. The Swiss architect Frank Geiser (*1935) belongs to the successful adepts of Mies who undoubtedly belongs to the country’s most significant architects working in steel. But although Geiser still regards the first 1956 issue of „Das Werk“ dedicated to the work of Mies, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Konrad Wachsmann as a quintessential representation of his architectural thinking, his preference for the square and clear geometry harks back to Geiser’s early acquaintance with art: during his training as a draftsman in Berne in the early to mid-1950s Geiser moved in the circles of the local avant-garde and himself made artworks in the style of the Art concret.
Following his training in Berne Geiser in 1956 moved to Ulm in Germany to study architecture at the legendary Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) where Herbert Ohl was his teacher and from which he graduated in 1960 with a diploma project about social housing. Afterwards he returned to Berne where he also established his office as early as 1962 and in the subsequent two decades realized a number of very Miesian projects, among them the Radio Schweiz high-rise (1969-72), single-family homes and
These projects and many others are featured in Konrad Tobler’s monograph „Frank Geiser. Architekt – Hauptwerke 1955–2015“, published in 2015 by Park Books. Tobler, based on a multitude of interviews conducted with the architect, elaborates on his formation and work. But the major part of the book is dedicated to a selection of projects from the 1960s to the present, all presented in comprehensive dossiers including photographs and plans. The featured projects demonstrate Geiser’s ability to make the Miesian idiom his own and how he rigorously refined the grid as basis of his architecture. And even though the 1980s saw him introduce postmodern elements these were always subordinated to the grid.
Tobler’s book on Frank Geiser is a beautifully designed and highly readable tribute to a lesser-known yet significant Swiss architect that is warmly recommended!
