Deon Architekten: Buildings and Projects 2000-2025

The first book on DEON Architekten explores nineteen of their buildings and projects via sketches and drawings.

The archive of Lucerne-based firm DEON Architekten contains beautiful sketches and drawings in a range of techniques such as charcoal, ink, pencil, and marker, on drawing or tracing paper and on plans. Many of these sheets are collaborative works, created in dialogue-based design within the firm, with external partners, and with clients. The diversity is vast and sometimes surprising, and they all illustrate that drawing is a brilliant tool for the development of ideas.

DEON Architekten uses sketches and drawings as the main lens through which it explores the firm’s work across nineteen buildings and projects. They range from a minor intervention in an existing structure to major industrial plants, from remodeling a private residence to a large housing development, from research commissions to submissions to public competitions. Divided into four chapters--Shape, Building Redevelopment, Interaction, Large Form--the volume focuses on the diverse processes that characterize the construction of architecture, the joint search for solutions, and the flow of design. Sketches and drawings are reproduced in true size and supplemented with plans, visualizations, and photographs. These lavish visuals illustrate DEON Architekten’s design process and realized buildings.

Hansjürg Buchmeier is a Lucerne-based sculptor, photographer, and freelance artist. Between 2009 and 2022, he taught as a professor of applied sciences and arts at the Lucerne University Institute of Architecture, where he directed the visual design section.