Swiss president launches global alliance for building culture

This house in central Switzerland, pictured in 2011, was the first multi-family house in the country to produce more energy than it consumed. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Around 30 European ministers of culture have founded the Davos Baukultur AllianceExternal link at the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF). The alliance aims to promote exchange and cooperation between the private sector, civil society and politics for sustainable building culture.

Interior Minister Alain Berset, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, had invited the ministers to the two-day conference on the fringes of the WEF in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos. The alliance will be chaired for five years by Switzerland, with its secretariat operating within the WEF.

“Good Baukultur [building culture] has never been as important as it is today. There can be no sustainable development without it,” Berset said in his opening speech on Sunday.

With the WEF as a partner and the inclusion of the building and real estate industry, the goal of a high-quality building culture is now widely recognised by all participants, the Federal Office of Culture said in a statementExternal link on Monday.

A high-quality building culture – which includes architecture, design, urban planning and craftsmanship – can be achieved only through networking and interdisciplinary cooperation, Berset insisted. Until now, he said, the private sector in particular has been missing from the debates on building culture.

Berset also said he wanted to make building culture an instrument against global warming. A good building culture is indispensable when it comes to quickly achieving the energy turnaround and slowing down climate change, he said.

Sustainable reconstruction in Ukraine

For Ukraine, which is also part of the Baukultur Alliance, the question of reconstruction after the destruction caused by the invasion of Russia would also arise within the framework of this multidimensional approach, Berset said. This was also in the spirit of the Lugano conference, held in the southern Swiss city in July, which focused on the sustainable reconstruction of the country, he said.

An initial Baukultur event is planned during the opening of the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which takes place from May 20 to November 26 under the title “The Laboratory of the Future”.