MANIC MODERN – Book Launch

MANIC MODERN. ELEMÉR ZALOTAY. FROM MEGASTRUCTURE TO SELF-BUILD

The first monograph on the Hungarian-Swiss architect and engineer Elemér Zalotay (1932–2020) tells the story of a radical outsider and utopian visionary. After a decade of controversial designs and a handful of spectacular buildings in Hungary, he emigrated to Switzerland in 1973. Here, Zalotay continued to develop his visionary megastructures and unconventional housing concepts. His self-built “research house” in Ziegelried, near Bern, became an architectural manifesto, addressing issues that are more relevant than ever today: affordable housing, ecological responsibility and collective building. The FSA supports the book project.

The monograph will be presented in Bern in the presence of its editors Tibor Joanelly, Monika Annen and Marco Walser.

Saturday, 14 November 2026, from 4 pm, Affspace, Bern