Image: © Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv, 1953 

The Department of Environment Constructions and Design SUPSI is hosting the exhibition “Inclusive heritage: invisibilized voices and places” at its Campus in Mendrisio. It presents twelve different sites across Switzerland: discreet, sometimes overlooked places that preserve the memory of communities and individuals without institutional representation. The sites propose an alternative mapping of Swiss heritage, grounded in the country’s social and cultural plurality.

In 1975, the European Architectural Heritage Year adopted the slogan: “A future for our past.” Half a century later, in an era marked by migration, climate disruption, and demands for greater balance and social justice, this exhibition invites us to reconsider that shared future in light of today’s challenges.

The exhibition raises a fundamental question: what do we choose to pass on, and on whose behalf? It highlights hidden legacies often absent from official inventories – from prisons to working-class neighborhoods to memories of migration. Several studies shed light on neglected practices and lives not represented by monuments or commemorative gestures in our cities, expanding our understanding of what can be considered heritage.

Photographs, testimonies, and field research by Mischa Engeler, Tiffanie Genilloud, Sofia Gloor, Malika Jenni, Tamara Khalil, Elisa Nadas, Anna Ozhiganova, Ernesto Pinto De Carvalho, Léa Roberts, Lili Rouveure, Luce Salvadé, and Nicolás Wittig, curated by Florence Graezer Bideau (Heritage, Anthropology and Technologies, ENAC, EPFL), Anna Karla de Almeida Milani (Delft University of Technology), and Rune Frandsen (Chair Construction Heritage and Preservation, ETH Zurich), in collaboration with Anna Bórbala Hausel (EPFL) and Helen Wyss (ICOMOS Suisse), the exhibition offers a renewed vision of Swiss heritage living and rooted in everyday life.

This collective exhibition project not only brings forgotten or little-known legacies to light, but also encourages the construction of a more inclusive memory that reflects the diversity of our society.

“A future for whose past?” is an initiative led by the Chair of Construction Heritage and Preservation at ETH Zurich, in collaboration with ICOMOS Suisse and the Heritage, Anthropology and Technologies research group at EPFL, with the support of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture. The exhibition originates from the pedagogical work carried out in the courses “Future Heritage” (ETH Zurich) and “Urban Anthropology” (EPFL).
 

Opening, exhibition period, and guided tour

The opening of Inclusive heritage: invisibilized voices and places will take place on Monday, 2 March 2026 at 17:00 on the ground floor of the Department of Environment Constructions and Design SUPSI Campus (via Flora Ruchat-Roncati 15, Mendrisio).

Speakers will include Giacinta Jean (SUPSI Department of Environment Constructions and Design, Conservation and Restoration Chair), Florence Graezer Bideau (EPFL), Anna Karla de Almeida Milani (Delft University of Technology), and Rune Frandsen (ETH Zurich).

The exhibition will be open to the public until Friday, 27 March 2026 on the ground floor of the SUPSI Campus in Mendrisio (Monday–Friday, 9:00–19:00).

A guided tour is scheduled for Tuesday, 10 March 2026 at 17:00, led by Giacinta Jean (SUPSI Professor of History and Conservation Techniques), Sergio Bettini, and Anna Bernardi (Institute for the History and Theory of Art and Architecture – Academy of Architecture, Mendrisio).