Anomalies of the Landscape

Leukerbad is a paradox—visions of the future now stand as relics of the past. Grand ideas fractured, spaces froze in limbo. But ruins aren’t just decay. They are unfinished stories. This project doesn’t restore or erase. It listens—to voids, fractures, silence. It asks: Can failure be potential? Can absence be architecture? Through art, history, and design, it dissects, extracts, and reimagines. Leukerbad’s ruins are not passive. This project gives them a voice—and a new future.

What happened in Leukerbad tells a complex story. After decades of architectural investment, the town faced financial collapse, leading to privatization, fragmentation, and neglect. Since 1998, many buildings lost their function and identity. Some, like the Rathaus, were divided among multiple owners, creating a fragmented urban fabric. This division erased character, leaving many spaces unused and disconnected. This crisis forms the foundation of this thesis, seeing ruins not as decay but as dynamic entities—traces of events, causes and effects, and experiences shaped by context. Ruins are not just remnants of failure; they are unfinished narratives. They embody ambiguity, openness, and transformation. They are not just what remains, but what could be. Through art, history, and architectural theory, this book explores ruins, drawing from 17th- and 18th-century paintings that depicted them as symbols of loss and romanticism. These artistic reflections offer insight into how ruins were once perceived and how they can be reimagined in architecture. The book questions how fragments of the past can inform the future. Beyond historical analysis, it examines Leukerbad’s urban decay, its present condition, and its future potential. It presents a new architectural discourse—one that does not seek to erase or restore ruins but to reclaim and reactivate them. By engaging with fragmentation, emptiness, and spatial ambiguity, this project challenges conventional ideas of function and permanence. Finally, this research manifests as an architectural response. How can ruins be integrated into new designs? How can their artistic and historical significance shape spaces like the Rathaus, Leukerbad Therme, and Sportarena? How can these insights influence tourism and urban identity?