British modernist architect Jane Drew is the patron of the annual award given by Architects' Journal and The Architectural Review, which recognizes outstanding female artists whose practice raises the profile of women in architecture. This year, the award went to Barbara Busar, a Swiss architect and pioneer in the field of material reuse and construction.
Previous recipients of the Jane Drew Award include: Iwona Buczkowska (2024), Zaha Hadid (2012), Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara (2015), Odile Decq (2016), Denise Scott Brown (2017), Yasmeen Lari (2020) or Kazuyo Sejima (2023).
Barbara Buser graduated in 1979 with a degree in architecture from the famous Federal Polytechnic University of Zurich. Soon after, she went to Africa - she spent ten years in Sudan and Tanzania, working in the profession. The experience she gained there showed her the potential of reusing building materials and made her aware of the scale of its waste in European countries. Upon her return to the country in 1995, she decided to take matters into her own hands and, together with Klara Kläusler, created the Bauteilbörse in Basel, the first exchange for reusable building materials in Switzerland.
© Circular Engineering for Architecture & DiCE
In 1998, together with Erik Honegger, she founded the studio Baubüro Mitte, known today as Baubüro in situ, whose mission is to design on site, with people, using already existing resources and with care for the environment. It has to its credit numerous projects that have succeeded in preserving the existing fabric. She has reportedly saved more buildings in Basel from demolition than the Herzog & de Meuron studio has built, the first of which was her parents' house.
The studio's flagship project is K.118 in Winterthur, Switzerland, a six-story building created from 70 percent of the structural elements already used once.
© baubüro in situ
The K.118 project concerns the reconstruction and superstructure of an existing warehouse and industrial building. The resulting building is experimental and intended for an understated function, loosely defined as office. The project's investor was a Swiss pension fund, which made it a condition to conduct a thorough evaluation of the entire design process and implementation in order to draw conclusions and assess circular and re-use architecture. [...] According to calculations by expert Katrin Pfäffli of the ZHAW university, who undertook a detailed evaluation of the implementation, the K.118 building saved 59 percent of carbon emissions (about 500 tons of new materials) compared to the construction of a new building with similar parameters
- Michal Sikorski of the TŁO studio wrote about the project.
Read more: REUSE on the European architectural scene
© HouseEurope!
Barbara Bauser, not only as an architect, but also as an activist who cares about the environment, is active in various fields supporting urban transformation, the search for low-cost forms of housing or circular design. Interestingly, she also became the first woman to operate a ferry on the Rhine! Her pro-environmental activities and charisma were captured in the documentary film "Barbara Bauser. Pioneer of Sustainable Development," which is scheduled to premiere this April.
Award-winning Swiss architect Barbara Buser saves buildings from demolition and rebuilds them using recycled materials. She transforms former industrial sites into urban living spaces that symbolize a caring approach to our environment and to each other. As a woman successfully paving the way in a male-dominated field, Barbara Buser is a role model for the younger generation who are fighting for a more sustainable and just world
- write the film's creators.
© First Hand Films - Distribution
Barbara Buser's work and activities have for years set the stage in architecture for greater concern for the environment, reflection on our interference with space and the resources at our disposal, and redefinition of the role of architects and architects.
Buser is a pioneer; she was way ahead of her time, and recognition for her is long overdue
- emphasized Manon Mollard, editor-in-chief of the award-winning The Architectural Review.
