Barbara Buser’s focus lies in sustainable construction, reduction of waste and CO2 emissions. In 1996, she and Klara Kläusler founded the first-ever Bauteilbörse (building parts exchange) in Basel. Together with Eric Honegger, she opened the architectural practice baubüro in situ, the urban think tank denkstatt, the project for intermediate uses unterdessen and the engineering planner for circularity Zirkular.

At the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, her practice, in situ, received the Global Gold Award from the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction for the K.118 project in Winterthur (shown above). She has initiated and led various other important transformation projects, such as Unternehmen Mitte, Gundeldinger Feld, Markthalle Basel, Hanro and Ziegelhof in Liestal, always starting from and valuating the existing structures, buildings and social context. She also co-founded several cooperatives in order to foster affordable housing in the cities.

This public lecture is presented in the context of Prof. Catherine De Wolf‘s Future Cities Lab Design Studio “Digital Creativity for Circular Construction,” organized by ETH Zurich’s Chair of Circular Engineering for Architecture (CEA).