Assignment

As part of an in-depth study at the ETH Zurich's Institute for Constructive Heritage and Monument Preservation, a thesis was written on ephemeral buildings that were built in connection with the Badenfahrt.

Analysis

Sieg der Freude!
Rauscht, buntdurchglühte Freudenwogen! Die Trübsal sei um ihren Tag betrogen.

Sie hat uns lang genug genarrt, Mit Sorgen hat sie nicht gespart

Wir trugen sie und seufzten viel, Und glaubten nicht an Mass und Ziel:

Auch Nacht und Not sind ird’sche Dinge, Dass schliesslich sie das Licht verschlinge.

Die Finsternis gebiert die Helle, Dass Zuversicht aus Leiden Quelle.

Denn Schmerz und Freude sind Geschwister! Merk Dir das wohl, Gefühlsphilister!

Wem keine Freude schwärt im Herzen, Dem wars nie ernst mit seinen Schmerzen.

Der tiefste Gram will frohste Freude, Sonst nagt der Wurm das Weltgebäude.

Wir brauchen Lieder, Blumen, Farben, Dass wehe Wunden uns vernarben.

Drum rauscht, ihr lichten Freudenwogen: Die Hoffnung kommt ins Land gezogen!

These lines set the mood for the first Badenfahrt in 1923 in the town of Baden in the canton of Aargau in the festival brochure. After the decline of the bathing tradition and the difficult economic times after the First World War, people wanted to strengthen the community again and remembered the times when visitors from all over Europe streamed into the small town.

Over the years, the Badenfahrt festival has grown considerably. While in the beginning the main act was the parade through the town, today it is above all the artistic buildings that define the character of the Badenfahrt. Terraces, works of art, historical reconstructions and other buildings spring up everywhere during this period, transforming the whole town into a stage for the festival and disappearing again within a short space of time.

In the introduction to “Ephemeral Urbanism: Does Permanence Matter?”, a distinction is made between “durability” and “the temporary”. Mehrotra and Vera go on to explain that, in contrast to the permanence of architecture, the concept of the temporary generally has negative connotations. Associations with tent settlements, favelas, refugee camps and other informal buildings are evoked. This negative assessment of temporary buildings is contrasted with the fascination they hold when they are used for popular purposes or commercial events. One example is Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace, which was constructed in such a way that it could be dismantled after the Great Exhibition in 1851.

These “temporary cities”, as also described by Mehrotra and Vera, were created in connection with the spectacle, as described by Guy Debord, and were “places of dissolution of boundaries, of hope and of dreams”. The city festival in Baden also falls into this category. For example, the Badenfahrt in 1982, when Stella Palino danced across the Limmat on a tightrope, or when the launch of a rocket was simulated on the Schlossbergplatz in 2017 and the town became a stage. These events show how the population uses creativity to appropriate the city, transforming everyday places into something unexpected.

The popularity of such events results from the fact that they make the city accessible to a large number of people and suspend social norms and rules for a short time, as well as some building regulations. For these events, certain urban spaces are completely transformed for a limited time and existing norms are suspended. The act of experiencing one's own city from a different perspective, which differs from everyday life during the rest of the year, provides the drive and motivation for this, but also the basis for special building regulations. This collective drive of the population also exists in Baden when it comes to helping to shape the Badenfahrt. In the town, there is also talk of the “Spirit of Baden”, which inspires the people of Baden and is expressed directly in the ephemeral buildings.

The complete paper “Der Badener Geist und die Architektur - Ephemere Bauten und immaterielles Erbe der Badenfahrt” can be downloaded in the original language at the indicated link.