An insightful and engagingly narrated exploratory work on a pioneer of modern architecture from
Switzerland The Queen Alexandra Sanatorium in Davos is a masterpiece of early modernist
architecture by the Swiss architects Pfleghard & Haefeli (Schatzalp Davos) and the renowned
civil engineer and bridge builder Robert Maillart. A new form of architecture was forged here
full of contradictions and compromises and the result of intense collaboration between engineer
architect and client. It stands at the threshold of modernism which is largely characterized
by the use of reinforced concrete. Apart from certain early mentions in architectural history
very little has been written about this Swiss precursor of modernist architecture. Drawing on
numerous archival records Daniel Korwan now provides the first detailed chronology of this
1909 building thus expanding the record on the historical reception of modernism. First
publication on a Swiss building that prefigured modern architecture Unpublished illustrations
and plans of the Queen Alexandra Sanatorium in Davos Insightful and engagingly narrated new
contribution to the study of 20th century modernism
