Project-Story #01

‘It’s not as noisy here as people think,’ André Schär explains as he takes us through the quarry in Ostermun­digen. The machines do in fact make their way through the stone gently – a calm, almost meditative sound.
‘If they put out a CD, I would buy it,’ Schär jokes. All the machines here have their own name, like they are part of the team. ‘Grosi’, for example, has been on the team since the 60s. ‘Despite the new technology, software and 3D scanners, our job still relies on a lot of manual work,’ Schär says. ‘First the field is cleared, and the area is cut out with a rock-cutting machine. Then the soil is separated, and the stone blocks are taken to the plant in Bern Bethlehem to be processed further.’ There, the sawyer cuts them into appropriately-sized slices, the milling operator forms them and the stonemason puts on the finishing touches before the final product is ­fitted precisely into the façade of the Kaiserhaus at the construction site.

We meet Stefan Schmid from the architecture firm Aebi & Vincent at the construction site. The firm specialises in refurbishing historical buildings in and around Bern. ‘The idea behind refurbishing has fundamentally changed,’ Schmid explains. ‘People used to try to make everything seem new. From a modern perspective, that is outdated. It is more important to feel the history of the building.’ This applies to the Kaiserhaus project too: In the past 12 years, its façade has been analysed piece by piece.

If a stone needed to be replaced, it was measured, sketched and sent to Andrè Schär’s team as an order. ‘The curved pieces were really interesting: These had to be arranged and poured by hand so that the arch would hold together properly like during the Middle Ages. ‘Stonemasons don’t do this much anymore. That’s why we think it’s so exciting,’ Schär and Schmid said.

‘We architects have an idea about what it should look like, but how this can be implemented and simplified has to always be discussed with the manufacturer,’ Schmid says. For four years, the architects have been working closely with the stone processing company. Now they are standing in front of the finish façade, ­visibly pleased with it. However, the two couldn’t come to an agreement on whether the Bernese bedrock will make a comeback. ‘Sandstone is easy to process, but it is soft and porous. Aside from restorations, I don’t see any future in it,’ the architect says. ‘People often paint the Bernese sandstone in a negative light,’ stonemason André Schär responds. ‘But if you install and protect it properly, it will last a very long time.’ The material also gets good marks in terms of sustainability and regionality. This makes the walls of the Kaiserhaus a tangible piece of Bernese history and not just a façade.