Presented in parallel with the exhibition Crossed Histories at Archizoom, the installation Unveiling the Archives: Alice Biro & Jeanne Bueche—created in collaboration with the Archives de la construction moderne: Barbara Galimberti, Kethsana Muong, and Mathias Narbel—continues the reflection on the place of women in the history of architecture. By revealing two careers from the Swiss archives, it broadens the perspective opened up by Crossed Histories, in turn questioning the conditions of visibility, recognition, and transmission of the work of architects.
INTRODUCTION
In architectural archives, the presence of women remains exceptional. This scarcity cannot be explained solely by statistics, which show the low proportion of female students and professionals throughout the 20th century. It also results from the mechanisms of transmission and preservation that shape archival holdings: the selected, described, and ultimately highlighted collections often reflect contingent choices, but above all enduring biases, further reinforced by research expectations and practices that have long favoured the preservation of renowned figures and predominantly male networks.
Against this backdrop of absence, two careers stand out as exceptions at the Archives de la construction modern, EPFL: those of Jeanne Bueche and Alice Biro. Their archives are preserved as independent entities, directly attributed to their own work rather than linked to that of a male colleague or partner. While their careers differ in context and trajectory, they share a common starting point: polytechnic education, Bueche in Zurich and Biro in Lausanne. For many women of their generation, these institutions provided a crucial gateway into a profession that was still largely closed to them.
The fonds of Bueche and Biro do not always offer a complete picture of their careers: some stages are scarcely documented, while others are fragmentarily preserved. Nevertheless, they make it possible to trace individual paths shaped by personal choices and commitments, shedding light on both the possibilities and the limits of women’s recognition in 20th-century Swiss architecture. These records invite reflection not only on the place of women in architectural archives and the ways in which their work has been transmitted, but also on the diversity of ways in which women have practised architecture.
ALICE BIRO
The early decades of Alice Biro’s (née Ascher, 1923-2018) life are not documented in our archives. Born in Hungary and raised in Croatia, she arrived in Switzerland with her family in 1943 as a refugee. A few months later, she enrolled at the recently founded the École d’architecture et d’urbanisme de l’Université de Lausanne, which at the time was affiliated with the École d’ingénieurs. In 1946, the two institutions merged to form the École polytechnique de l’Université de Lausanne (EPUL), the predecessor of today’s EPFL.
She graduated in 1948, becoming part of the first generation of women to earn a degree from this institution. The preserved documents mainly concern her training. They include lecture notebooks, study projects and her diploma project file. While the archival fonds was initially acquired with a focus on the history of architectural education, it was later complemented by a small number of records relating to her professional practice. The later stages of her career, however, remain fragmentary, highlighting the inherent limits of archival selection and transmission processes.
After completing her studies, Alice Biro continued her training in Zurich, then went to Finland, where she joined Alvar Aalto’s office. This experience shaped her approach to domestic space and materials, which can be seen later in her own house in Gockhausen, built in 1965, as well as in several collaborations with the office of C. Lippert and A. v. Waldkirch (1957–1961) and later with that of E. Neuenschwander (1961–1984). She also took part in major competitions, both abroad and in Switzerland, illustrating her openness to the international architectural scene and to contemporary debates, even if her contributions were often part of collective projects.
She was also active on the intellectual front. She became a member of the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects in 1958, of the Swiss Werkbund in 1965, and in 1979 she defended a doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich on 18th-century Russian architectural language.
JEANNE BUECHE
Jeanne Bueche (1912–2000) was among the first generations of women to graduate from the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), at a time when their presence in the profession remained rare. Trained in the 1930s, she studied under the rigorous teaching of Otto Rudolf Salvisberg and, through Auguste Perret’s structural classicism, was introduced to a constructive and expressive approach to reinforced concrete. Her diploma, obtained in 1935, marked the start of an uninterrupted career, despite a context still largely dominated by men.
After working in Germany, Sweden, and then Lugano with Rino Tami in 1941, she returned to the Jura and opened her own practice in Delémont, establishing a solid presence in her home region. She designed detached houses, schools, and industrial buildings, contributing to the post-war transformation of the territory. Her activities were not limited to the local scale. She joined the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA), the Federation of Swiss Architects (FSA), the association L’Œuvre and the Federal Commission of Fine Arts, and participated in the second Swiss Exhibition for Women’s Work (SAFFA) in 1958, asserting her place within wider professional networks.
Her most significant work concerns religious architecture. The chapels of Montcroix, Corgemont and Vellerat reveal an approach attentive to light and materials, reflecting the spiritual and social transformations of their time. Alongside these works, she also designed more modest buildings and took an active role in preserving the rural heritage of the Jura.
The fonds held at the Acm-EPFL traces this career over several decades through plans, correspondence, projects and competitions, while her private life is almost absent from the documentation. Jeanne Bueche thus embodies a way of practising as a woman architect in the 20th century, based on a consistent practice rooted in her region and recognised within professional networks.