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Dienstag 11:00 - 18:00 Mittwoch 11:00 - 18:00 Donnerstag 11:00 - 20:30 Freitag 11:00 - 18:00 Samstag 11:00 - 17:00 Sonntag 11:00 - 17:00

S AM Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum

Name: S AM Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum
Address: Steinenberg 7, Basel, 4051, CH
Telephone: 0041 (0)61 261 14 13
Price range: $$

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S AM Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum

The S AM Swiss Architecture Museum is the leading institution in the mediation of contemporary architecture in Switzerland.

Centrally located and in the immediate vicinity of numerous other cultural institutions, S AM invigorates and shapes Switzerland's architectural discourse with its programme, and seeks to bridge the gap between professional discourse and the wider public. Being situated in Basel is no coincidence, as the city of Basel has developed to become the centre of Swiss cultural and architectural discourse

. As one of the most important European architectural centres, Basel has an abundance of outstanding classic modernist and contemporary structures. The city's unique location, right on the border with Germany and France, facilitates cross-border connections and international exchange. S AM has specialised in temporary exhibitions. With an average of 4 exhibitions each year, oriented towards the key programme elements 'History and the Present in Switzerland' and 'Learning From...', S AM appeals to professionals (architects, engineers and planners), but also, primarily, to a broad public with an interest in architecture. The exhibitions' content is reflected on and supplemented by means of guided tours, podium discussions, talks, workshops, work presentations, accompanying publications from the S AM series etc. In addition to the exhibitions, S AM also fulfils its function as a specialist platform for exchange and networking.

01/09/2026

We are happy to announce our upcoming exhibition, TONY FRETTON: PRACTICE.

PRACTICE is a retrospective exhibition of selected projects by the London-based architect Tony Fretton (b. 1945). Through texts, photographs, and drawings, the exhibition offers an insight into Fretton’s architectural practice as continuity of reflection on the existing environment, including the social, cultural and political dimensions of the city and what lies outside it.

It begins with the studies in performance art, photography, and sketchbooks, together with the buildings for the Lisson Gallery (London, 1986/1992) that established his distinctive architectural position. This sensibility, further refined in The Red House (London, 2000), gave the basis for projects of larger scale and proved successful in buildings realised in other countries that responded to their cultures, among them the City Hall in Deinze (2014), the British Embassy in Warsaw (2009), Fuglsang Art Museum in Denmark (2008), and the apartment building overlooking the Rhein Falls in Neuhausen, Switzerland (2022).

Conceived and realised in close collaboration and direct exchange with Tony Fretton, the exhibition also gives equal weight to his writing and drawing, showing their role in the realisation of the buildings and as a means of understanding the built environment as an embodiment of collective memory and knowledge. Concluding the exhibition is a new photo essay, in which Tony Fretton reapplies these approaches to the historic Kunsthalle building, in which the S AM is located, and the surrounding city.

Please join us for the opening at 7 PM on Friday, 18 September.

On the following day, Saturday 19 September, at 6:30 PM, Tony Fretton will give a presentation at the S AM followed by a conversation with Roger Diener (architect, Diener & Diener) and Irina Davidovici (Director, gta Archives at ETH Zürich). Free with museum admission.

24/08/2026

S AM x KUNSTTAGE BASEL – INFORMAL CITY: IN SEARCH OF THE UNPLANNED
with .for.peripatetic.design
Sunday, 30 August 2026, 10:00-11:30

In the niches of the officially planned city, the informal emerges beyond rules and norms: graffiti on walls, a chair marked ‘free to take,’ spontaneous vegetation breaking through the asphalt. The Office for Peripatetic Design invites you to be guided (and led astray) by the unplanned, and to discover in seemingly marginal spaces resistant gestures of a city lived differently.The walk engages the searching gaze upon urban space also embraced by the exhibition ‘Groundwork’.

Part of Kunsttage Basel

As part of the Kunsttage Basel 2026

Meeting point: S AM, Museum foyer
Language: German/English
Admission: free
Partly wheelchair accessible

Photo: Patrick Düblin

17/08/2026

LECTURE: JONAS JANKE (b+) AND JOSIANE SCHMIDT (HOUSEEUROPE!)
Date: Thursday, August 20, 19:00
Venue: S AM
Admission: Free
Language: German and English
With the support of the Hans and Renée Müller-Meylan Stiftung

Please join us for the last in a series of three lectures with the protagonists of the exhibition and film series ‘Groundwork,’ on view now at the S AM. The second chapter in the series, ‘To Build Law,’ follows the Berlin-based collective b+ and their policy lab, HouseEurope!, as they prepare a European Citizens’ Initiative under the motto ‘Power to Renovation.’ In this lecture, Jonas Janke of b+ and Josiane Schmidt of HouseEurope! will trace how the idea of an European Citizens’ Initiative emerged out of longstanding interests at b+, as well as present HouseEurope!’s second European Citizens’ Initiative, ‘Right to Housing! Now and Forever.’

Photo: Still from ‘To Build Law’ (2024), © CCA

Jonas Janke is an architect and partner at bplus.xyz. He has a diverse background in architecture, was trained as an architectural draughtsman before pursuing his studies in Hamburg, Stockholm and Berlin. He gained valuable experience as a tutor and assistant in various departments including design & typologies, building construction, and structural design during his student years. He was part of the team 2038, the German Pavilion at 17th Venice Architecture Biennale 2021. His early teaching experiences include guest studios at the University of Innsbruck (Austria), Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and Brno University of Technology (Czech Republic). He was a campaigner for the European Citizen Initiative ‘HouseEurope! – Power to Renovation,’ to create incentives that make the renovation and transformation of existing buildings the new norm and a common path.

Photo: Still from ‘To Build Law’ (2024), © CCA

Josiane Schmidt is an architect and a co-founder of optimist office. She has been teaching at station+, ETH Zurich, since 2024, and has been involved in the conception of HouseEurope! since 2023. HouseEurope! is a non-profit organization that aims to translate expertise regarding adaptive reuse and building transformation into regulations, incentives, and narratives

17/08/2026

Wednesday morning matinée in the exhibition 'Groundwork'
August 26 – 10 AM

Guided tour of the exhibition Groundwork.
Afterwards, you are invited to stay for an informal conversation and exchange.

An exhibition and film series produced by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), Montreal

What does it mean to think and do architecture today, in light of social crises and ecological challenges? ‘Groundwork’ addresses this question by investigating contemporary approaches that are rethinking architectural practice. At its center is a series of three new documentary films, which were produced by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal and originally shown there as three separate exhibitions.

Language: German
Admission: CHF 12, red. CHF 8

14/08/2026

Guided city tour: A City in Transition – New Districts in Northern Basel
August 23 – 2 PM
Registration by Basel Tourismus

How are new urban districts created?

Using the Lysbüchel site as an example, this tour explores how Basel is shaping urban development in the 21st century. A new neighborhood is gradually emerging on a former industrial and warehouse site, combining housing, commercial uses, cultural spaces, and public open areas.
The tour provides insights into contemporary approaches to urban development, including sustainable architecture, adaptive reuse, cooperative housing, and new mobility concepts.It highlights how former industrial areas are being transformed into vibrant urban neighborhoods—and offers a look at the ideas shaping the city of tomorrow.

Meeting point: Vogesenplatz, 4056 Basel

The architecture tours are a collaboration between Basel Tourism and the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum.

13/08/2026

Public guided tour through the exhibition 'Groundwork'
August 21 – 7 PM

An exhibition and film series produced by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), Montreal

What does it mean to think and do architecture today, in light of social crises and ecological challenges? ‘Groundwork’ addresses this question by investigating contemporary approaches that are rethinking architectural practice. At its center is a series of three new documentary films, which were produced by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal and originally shown there as three separate exhibitions.

Language: German
Admission: CHF 12, red. CHF 8

06/08/2026

To mark the Swimmable Cities European Forum in Basel next week, we’re revisiting our 2019 exhibition and publication project, Swim City. The publication drew attention to what was then an under-examined phenomenon in urban space: river swimming as a mass movement. Swiss cities have played a pioneering role in the development of this activity in the last few decades, gradually making the river accessible as a natural public space in the built environment. This has allowed for the river to become a place of leisure located right in front of one’s doorstep. Focusing on the different urban swimming cultures of Zurich, Basel, Bern, and Geneva, and featuring five contemporary international projects that are working to bring Swiss-style river swimming to their own contexts, the publication delves into the legal, infrastructural, and cultural conditions that make urban river swimming possible.

The publication Swim City will be available for purchase at the Swimmable Cities European Forum on 12 August at kHaus – for a special conference price of 30.- CHF instead of 39.- CHF!

Swim City
Edited by S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, Andreas Ruby, Yuma Shinohara
Featuring photographs by
224 pages, German/English
Designed by Claudiabasel Jiri Oplatek
Published by Christoph Merian Verlag

04/08/2026

Public guided tour through the exhibition 'Groundwork'
August 13 – 7 PM

An exhibition and film series produced by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), Montreal

What does it mean to think and do architecture today, in light of social crises and ecological challenges? ‘Groundwork’ addresses this question by investigating contemporary approaches that are rethinking architectural practice. At its center is a series of three new documentary films, which were produced by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal and originally shown there as three separate exhibitions.

Language: German
Admission: CHF 12, red. CHF 8

03/08/2026

Lesekreis Landschaft: On Site
August 12 – 7 PM

With Yuma Shinohara, Curator S AM

‘Site’ can take on a myriad of meanings in architecture. Depending on the use case, it can signify a plot of land, a place where construction is taking place, or – more diffusely – the place or the context where a project intervenes. In light of climate crisis and social upheaval, the disciplinary borders of architectural practice are changing, expanding. What does this mean for architecture’s relationship to place? How do we define the ‘site’ of architecture today?

The event is part of the ‘Lesekreis Landschaft’, an event series organized by the Lokal für Raumbegehung. Lesekreis Landschaft is a public forum for reading and discussion. Each meeting is moderated by a different person from academia, the professional field, or the cultural sector, who compiles text excerpts into a reader. The short text excerpts are read aloud at the event. No prior knowledge is required. The group is reconstituted for each meeting. More info: lokal-fuer-raumbegehung.ch

Venue: S AM
Admission: Free
Language: German

29/06/2026

Public guided tour through the exhibition 'Groundwork'
July 9 – 7 PM

An exhibition and film series produced by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), Montreal

What does it mean to think and do architecture today, in light of social crises and ecological challenges? ‘Groundwork’ addresses this question by investigating contemporary approaches that are rethinking architectural practice. At its center is a series of three new documentary films, which were produced by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal and originally shown there as three separate exhibitions.

Language: English
Admission: CHF 12, red. CHF 8

Adresse

Steinenberg 7
Basel
4051

Öffnungszeiten

Dienstag	11:00 - 18:00
Mittwoch	11:00 - 18:00
Donnerstag	11:00 - 20:30
Freitag	11:00 - 18:00
Samstag	11:00 - 17:00
Sonntag	11:00 - 17:00

Telefon

0041 (0)61 261 14 13

Webseite

https://www.sam-basel.org/en

Benachrichtigungen

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