On Common Ground

This book presents the development of settlements in post-war Switzerland by two idealised examples. Schlieren, which grew from an agricultural village to an industrial town and eventually to a cluster of service firms and residential suburb of Zürich, and the Upper Engadine, the world famous mountain resort around St. Moritz in the Canton of Grisons. The authors have put together a vast collection of photographs found in archives of all sorts: local government offices, building companies, local and national newspapers, publishers of postcards, cultural heritage societies and amateur photographers. Such images have rarely been collected and analysed systematically. On Common Ground presents 250 of these images in a double-track, chronological sequence with Schlieren at the top and the Upper Engadine at the bottom half of each page. The concept reveals manifold references, discrepancies and parallels between the two places. It makes traceable the passing of time and all the changes it imposes at times synchronically, in some periods at a different pace in each place. Two short essays complement the pictures, looking at the socio-economic developments in both areas and providing background information about the search for the images at the various archives. Text in English and German.