Burckhardt History: Interview mit Leonhard Burckhardt

CI: Was Martin Burckhardt the same in his personal life as in his professional life? 

LB: That’s a good question and difficult for me to answer since I am his son: He certainly always tackled the job in hand with a great deal of passion, whether in his private life or at work. He was a very emotional person, sometimes even a touch melodramatic, like when he used to come home utterly furious or euphoric. That’s why I would suggest there couldn’t be much of a difference.  

CI: As Martin Burckhardt’s son, which projects did you experience as being crucial for him? 

LB: I was aware of many of his projects, of course, and also understood which ones were particularly important to my father. The first thing that comes to mind is the vivarium at Basel Zoo, which also enjoys a certain status in the public eye. Hardly anyone who visits it today knows that it was designed by my father. And this building is still going strong today.  

CI: That’s definitely one, because the vivarium has also been mentioned in several other interviews. 

LB: Of course, another building that deserves mentioning is the BIS tower, which is iconic by any account, but not something the public can identify with to the same extent as a vivarium. For instance, I’ve have never actually been inside the BIS tower myself, although I would have always jumped at the chance.  

SCH: Now, of course, the BIS tower is no longer in its original state, partly because Herzog & de Meuron have refurbished the interior. But back to Martin Burckhardt – you said earlier that he sometimes came home from work downright euphoric. 

LB: Yes, he came home and talked about the buildings that excited him and a lot about the office – when he was home for lunch. He always spoke with a great deal of passion. He lived the role of a patron. Not that of a manager, but of a patron who also cultivated an emotional relationship with his staff, although running a company is not always easy. Guido Doppler played an important role for my father, because he was more the tough entrepreneur. 

CI: You have already given many good descriptions of your father, so if you wouldn’t mind finishing the sentence for us: «Martin Heinrich Burckhardt was …» 

LB: «... generous, emotional, and intelligent, Basel born and raised.» And had the greatest sense of humor of just about anyone I’ve ever met. You can see it in his texts and drawings, and he was also able to laugh at himself... circumstances permitting. Humor was an important aspect of his life and certainly helped in dealing with his staff and customers. 

SCH: You used the word «generous»: I’d like to point out that that can still be felt today. This company has always been generous and still is today. That’s certainly an aspect that characterizes the company and that Martin Burckhardt exemplified by launching the Brunelleschi Foundation, for example. Today, the Foundation is still an effective tool for cushioning cases of hardship for staff with regard to social welfare. But for me, emotional intelligence also fits into the image I have of Martin Burckhardt. But there’s also the cultural, historical aspect.  

LB: Of course, he was born with cultural and social skills, and I would definitely emphasize that he was «Basel born and raised». He had a strong personality, but that was not always easy for those around him. For instance, if he had an idea that he thought was brilliant, he was very difficult to dissuade. But he was also very good at expressing himself, not only linguistically, but also with his drawings. He was marvelous at drawing. And finally, it was important to him that he was born into an old Basel aristocratic family, an elite that no longer really exists today, but back in the day he was certainly one of its most colorful representatives. 

CI: What do you think the terms team spirit and partnership meant to him? 

LB: They were without doubt very important to him. The exchange with others, the learning from and observing each other. I don’t know whether he was really a team player. I’m afraid he probably wasn’t. He was a patron, and his actions were guided by this attitude. I don’t think he used to call team meetings where they sat down and decided things together. Because there was already a certain hierarchy, everyone had their particular role. 

SCH: These different characters were also what made the company thrive. And actually, I believe you need that in order to develop.  

CI: What were Martin Burckhardt’s strengths? 

LB: He was good at analyzing problems and establishing correlations and causal relationships. Plus, the generosity I mentioned earlier, that was not only reflected in the material, but also in the intellectual sense. My father was always conscious that the business had to make a profit, but that was never what motivated him. However, he always demanded commitment from those around him. And with me, he very soon realized that I would definitely not become an architect. There wasn’t any debate, not for a second; he let me go my own way, but he nonetheless always demanded commitment from those around him, including his family. He took it as a given that everyone would develop a passion for something. He was also politically active and so was I, except that I took a different direction, which was awkward only for a short time. My father only really got upset when people did nothing or what he thought was too little. And not the other way round.

CI: Do you know what he was proud of? 

LB: Yes, his architecture, without a shadow of a doubt. Alongside his family, this was definitely his biggest motivation.  

CI: What did architecture mean to him? 

LB: It had to work, first and foremost, and deliver to a high standard what the client wanted. But for my father, it was also important that it would integrate into the surroundings. At best, it should draw on historical heritage and reflect the architecture that surrounds it – something that is almost taken for granted today, but back then things were different to some extent. Besides pure construction and aesthetics, he always tried to include all other aspects: Context, durability and impact. That was important to him. Once he had to build a project for Ciba-Geigy, an office block next to the Badischer Bahnhof railway station. There, one of his ideas was to install a huge aquarium so that staff could enjoy it and see it every day on their way to the canteen. That’s just a small example of how, for him, something had to be added that went beyond the purely functional.

CI: Nowadays, holistic construction is a thing, too. 

LB: Yes, that’s exactly the direction in which my father was already heading back then. He hadn’t lectured on architecture at the University of Applied Sciences, but on urban planning for engineers. That suited him very well, as did the constant questioning of what you could contribute to urban development as an architect. He was keen to find ever better solutions and not simply put up a building that only met the client’s needs. 

SCH: What is always neglected to some extent in the documents are the projects in America. Do you know if Martin Burckhardt realized them all himself? 

LB: I’m not sure about that. I only made one trip to the USA, but was able to stay with numerous people for whom my father had done buildings and who were involved either as partners or developers. In any case, I met numerous people on this trip to the States who all told me that these buildings were still good after all this time and continued to bring them pleasure. Maybe they only said that because I was the son, but it was nice to hear. And I believe that there’s some truth to it, because my father also cultivated many friendships and lasting relationships wherever he went. He was always good at switching between the private and professional level. And he didn’t just travel to Washington DC, Nigeria, Australia or Berlin to build there, he also always wanted to learn something about the countries, people and places, about their culture, landscape and current situation. Everything went beyond the purely professional and commercial aspects. Basel was always the point of reference for my father and for the company; Basel was where it all started and has remained Burckhardt’s headquarters to this day. 

CI: What values does Burckhardt believe in?  

LB: Quality. Quality came before money. Naturally, you had to earn money and of course the customer comes first, but you try to present it in such a way that the client accepts certain qualities that the company stands for. And relationships – closeness, acceptance and appreciation were also important to my father. Getting along well on a human level – but the results also had to be right too, of course. He often said, «We may be an expensive architecture firm, but we deliver on what we promise and are consistent.» 

SCH: What you mentioned about the client being a customer is of course true, but it always sounds a bit like a service provider and an architect doesn’t like to see himself as a service provider. 

LB: But I do believe that my father focused on the wishes of the customer, or the principal, and wanted to deliver the best possible quality. There comes to mind the story of when he built a house for a good friend and his second wife in Leimental. My father simply carried out what was required as well as possible. It turned out to be a beautiful house, but he was anything but happy with what they made of it in the end and often cussed about it. 

SCH: Martin Burckhardt was always able to achieve great results with people, but when things didn’t work out, it was sometimes difficult, wasn’t it? 

LB: I think you’re right. He could easily take offense in that kind of situation. Because he was definitely pretty thin-skinned. Sometimes he even had the impression that he was not appreciated enough as the architect. 

SCH: In Switzerland, big architectural offices are not that popular per se, especially if you work for major players like the pharmaceutical industry. In Switzerland, people prefer the small, premium setup where everyone works selflessly and then even harder to design a beautiful custom-made kitchen. That’s why, as a large office, you’re more likely to be labeled negatively. But it’s very different abroad, even just across the border in Germany, where there’s no such negative connotation with respect to large architectural firms. 

LB: That was already very noticeable back then. And when the big star architects came along in the 1990s, such as Herzog & De Meuron and the like, my father was no longer active, but he also had the impression that these big names had completely different resources, now also with computers of course. Consequently, he didn’t really appreciate their work initially, but over time he realized that they were really good at it. Maybe he was just a little envious at first. 

SCH: Speaking of Herzog & de Meuron: There are now these three towers on the northern tip of Dreispitz – did you know that your father also once wanted to build a tower block there? After he’d retired, he and Paul Trefzger from the Migros Cooperative wanted to create a high-rise building and an open space called «Espace» on the Dreispitz. That’s another good example of how Martin Burckhardt was a visionary.  

LB: Yes, that’s right, he had many ideas, both realized and unrealized. 

SCH: How do you think he would react if he learned that many of his important buildings are no longer standing? Such as, for example, the Biozentrum, the high-rise building opposite Badischer Bahnhof, or the Schoren building, Switzerland’s first open-plan office? These are buildings that were demolished not because they were bad, but because their function and use were no longer in demand, or at some point found themselves in the «wrong location».  

LB: I can only speculate, but it would certainly hurt him and he probably wouldn’t be able to accept it calmly, knowing him. But at the same time, he was also someone who understood that things have to move on and develop. For example, he might understand the construction of the Roche towers in Basel because the pharmaceutical industry is important for the city, but he would certainly struggle with the replacement of the Suter + Suter hospital. That was also the building that hurt him at the time, the fact that it was so badly realized and stood, so prominent and ugly as it was, right at the heart of the city. This building was discussed more often than any other at the family table. And now that an urbanistic, even more inauspicious building is to follow – that would make him sad. 

CI: How much did he still think about all of this after he retired? 

LB: He still had his office and went in every day, as long as his health allowed, to get to grips with political, urban planning and architectural issues. That remained his life. He had actually imagined that he would spend his life drawing and traveling after his retirement, but unfortunately this was not possible because his eyesight had deteriorated so much. Even then, he never stopped thinking about architecture. Together with my mother, he was also a figure who played an important role in Basel’s art world with a great feel for high quality, which I always admired. 

CI: What did Martin Burckhardt dream of? 

LB: He dreamt of a Basel which was the center of his life, which was vibrant and funny. A city which will continue to develop in a healthy manner, as he always so eloquently said.