Alice Biro & Jeanne Bueche
An installation by the Archives de la construction moderne presented as part of the exhibition Crossed Stories: Gae Aulenti, Ada Louise Huxtable, Phyllis Lambert, on Architecture and the City / Archizoom
Monday to Friday, 9 am – 5 pm
Archizoom, SG Building, Place Ada Lovelace, EPFL
Presented in parallel with the exhibition Crossed Stories: Gae Aulenti, Ada Louise Huxtable, Phyllis Lambert, on Architecture and the City, produced by the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris with Léa-Catherine Szacka and Catherine Bédard, and presented by Archizoom, the installation Unveiling the Archives: Alice Biro & Jeanne Bueche – developed in collaboration with the Archives de la construction moderne (EPFL) – extends the reflection on the place of women in architectural history. By unveiling two careers preserved in Swiss archives, it broadens the perspective opened by Crossed Stories, questioning in turn the conditions of visibility, recognition, and transmission of architects’ work.
In architectural archives, the presence of women remains exceptional. This rarity is explained not only by the low number of female students and professionals during the 20th century, but also by the mechanisms of selection, transmission and preservation that have long favored consecrated figures and dominant, mostly male, networks.
The installation Unveiling the Archives sheds light on two trajectories that escape this invisibility: those of Alice Biro (1923–2018) and Jeanne Bueche (1912–2000). Both trained in polytechnic education (Bueche in Zurich, Biro in Lausanne), they belong to the first generation of women architects to graduate in Switzerland. Their archives, preserved at the Archives de la construction moderne (ACM–EPFL), bear witness to distinct careers united by a shared commitment to architecture as a field of experimentation and reflection.
Trained in the 1930s under Otto Rudolf Salvisberg, Jeanne Bueche opened her own office in Delémont in 1944. She developed a body of work deeply rooted in the Jura region, combining houses, schools, industrial buildings and, above all, religious architecture characterized by light and the expressive use of concrete. Active in several professional associations (SIA, FAS, L’Œuvre) and a participant in the 1958 Swiss Exhibition for Women’s Work (SAFFA), she established herself as a recognized figure in a field still scarcely open to women.
A generation younger, Alice Biro left Hungary for Switzerland during the war and graduated in 1948 from the École polytechnique de l’Université de Lausanne (EPUL), predecessor of EPFL. After a period at Alvar Aalto’s office in Finland, she took part in various collective projects and international competitions while also pursuing independent works, including her own house-studio in Gockhausen (1965). Her career, both intellectual and professional, reflects an uncommon openness for the time and a sustained reflection on domestic space and everyday life.
By bringing together drawings, photographs, correspondence and models, the exhibition reveals the richness and uniqueness of these two careers. It offers an opportunity to rediscover their contributions to Swiss architectural history while questioning the place of women in archives and the ways their work has—or has not—been transmitted and recognized. Through these two figures, Unveiling the Archives invites us to rethink the memory of architecture in light of experiences that have often remained on the margins, yet are essential to its understanding.
The exhibition Crossed Stories: Gae Aulenti, Ada Louise Huxtable, Phyllis Lambert, on Architecture and the City, produced by the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris:
Curator
Léa-Catherine Szacka
Associate Curator
Catherine Bédard
A scenography by Studio Pitis e Associati, Milan
Within the Archizoom–ACM team:
Director
Cyril Veillon
Curatorial and Communication Assistant
Solène Hoffmann
Scenography and Production
Dimitri Kasparian
Administration
Beatrice Raball
Graphic Design
Sophie Wietlisbach
Mediation Workshop
Science Promotion Service, EPFL
Archival Research and Writing for the installation Unveiling the Archives
Barbara Galimberti, Kethsana Muong and Mathias Narbel
Crossed Stories
Exhibition: from 24.09 to 28.11.2025, Monday to Friday / Archizoom
Archives Through the Lens of Gender
How can we work toward making women’s stories archivably visible? – Interviews / Archizoom