Markus Breitschmid

Markus Breitschmid (born 20 April 1966, Lucerne, Switzerland) is an American architectural theoretician, architect, and the author of several books on contemporary architecture and philosophical aesthetics. His most highly regarded books are ''Der bauende Geist. Friedrich Nietzsche und die Architektur (2001), The Significance of the Idea (2008, first print), and Non-Referential Architecture'' (2018, first edition). His writings have been translated into Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish. Breitschmid has been invited to contribute to the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Architecture Biennale of Chicago, the Salone Internationale del Mobile di Milano in Milan, and the Triennale of Architecture in Lisbon. His work has been exhibited at the Galerie d'Architecture in Paris and the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.

Biography
Breitschmid is a professor of architecture at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) since 2004. He holds a visiting professorship at the Universidad de Piura (UDEP), located in Piura and Lima, Peru since 2020. Previously, among other academic appointments, he was the "2003 Visiting Historian for the History of Architecture and Urbanism" at Cornell University and taught at the University of North Carolina and the Catholic University of America. In 2016, Breitschmid was appointed to the diploma commission of the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio. He has been a visiting lecturer and visiting critic at many universities, museums, and professional associations in Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Breitschmid holds a military as well as a civil education. He completed his training as an Artillery Officer in the Swiss Armed Forces in 1987. He served in the Mechanized Artillery of the Swiss Army in the rank of a First Lieutenant. Breitschmid received his architectural education in Switzerland, the United States and Germany. He is a registered architect. He received his Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) in engineering science from the Technische Universität Berlin, where he was the first doctoral student of the eminent architectural theoretician Fritz Neumeyer. Breitschmid operates the architecture firm Markus Breitschmid Architecture LLC in Virginia.

Breitschmid was born in Lucerne, Switzerland. Breitschmid is a citizen of the United States and Switzerland.

Writings on architecture
Breitschmid's writing concerns the aesthetic mentality of modernism and contemporary architecture. Among other subjects, Breitschmid has written books on the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's thoughts on building, contemporary architecture, and on Non-Referential Architecture. Breitschmid has written several essays on the work of Bruno Taut.

Breitschmid submitted his doctoral dissertation "Der Baugedanke bei Friedrich Nietzsche" at the Technische Universität Berlin in 1999; it was subsequently published as a German-language book titled ''Der bauende Geist. Friedrich Nietzsche und die Architektur'' (The Building Spirit. Friedrich Nietzsche and Architecture). Together with books on Nietzsche by Fritz Neumeyer and Tilmann Buddensieg, Der bauende Geist became the foundation for scholarship on the subject of Nietzsche and architecture. Der bauende Geist was included in Hanno-Walter Kruft's "A History of Architectural Theory from Vitruvius to the Present" for the revised 2013 edition.

Subsequently, Breitschmid's publications have dealt with such subjects as contemporary Swiss architecture, Bruno Taut, Tectonics in Architecture, and Theories of Interpretation.

Since 2006, Breitschmid has made a name for himself by means of a sustained collaboration with architect Valerio Olgiati on numerous publications that took on the form of books, essays, and interviews.

In her 2012 book Forms of Practice, the Romanian-British architecture historian Irina Davidovici argues that Breitschmid's thesis of "The Significance of the Idea" is pertinent for all of the contemporary architecture of “post-enlightenment culture.”

Since 2013, Breitschmid propagates Non-Referential Architecture as a response to a contemporary societal current that increasingly rejects ideologies of any kind, political and otherwise. The first use of the term Non-Referential appears in a reprint of an interview between Olgiati and Breitschmid in the Italian journal Domus. In 2014, Breitschmid published a rebuttal titled "Architecture is Derived from Architecture" (published in German language) in the Swiss journal Werk, Bauen + Wohnen, thereby responding to an architectural claim made by others that attempts to imbue meaning into architecture from the extra-architectural.

Breitschmid wrote the book Non-Referential Architecture, a treatise on contemporary architecture, that was published in 2018. It analyses the societal currents of the early 21st century and argues that those currents are radically different from the epoch of postmodernity. The book proposes a new framework for architecture and defines the seven underlying principles – 1) experience of space, 2) oneness, 3) newness, 4) construction, 5) contradiction, 6) order, 7) sensemaking – for a Non-Referential Architecture. The book has been published in several languages since its first appearance.

As author

 * Der bauende Geist. Friedrich Nietzsche und die Architektur. Quart, 2001. ISBN 978-3-907631-23-2
 * Can Architectural Art-Form be Designed Out Of Construction? Architecture Edition, 2004. ISBN 978-0-9702820-8-8
 * Nietzsche's Denkraum. Edition Didacta, 2006. Hardcover: ISBN 978-3-033-01206-6 Paperback: ISBN 978-3-033-01148-9
 * Between Object and Culture, in: Wolkenkuckucksheim - Cloud-Cuckoo-Land - Vozdushnyi zamo. Eduard Fuehr (ed.), Cottbus: No. 2/2007.
 * Three Architects in Switzerland: Beat Consoni – Morger & Degalo – Valerio Olgiati. Quart, 2008. ISBN 978-3-907631-88-1
 * Un’architettura che, in fondo, e ‘solo’ astratta, in: Casabella. Francesco Dal Co (ed.), Milano: 72/No.770, 2008, pp. 8–9; 107–108.
 * The Significance of the Idea. The Architecture of Valerio Olgiati. / Die Bedeutung der Idee. Die Architektur von Valerio Olgiati. Niggli Verlag, 2008. ISBN 978-3-7212-0676-0
 * El Inventorio Conceptual de Valerio Olgiati / Valerio Olgiati's Ideational Inventory in: El Croquis No.156, 2011. ISBN 978-84-88386-65-6
 * The Architect as 'Molder of the Sensibilities of the General Public': Bruno Taut and his Architekturprogramm. in: The Art of Social Critique. Painting Mirrors of Social Life, Lexington Books, 2012. ISBN 978-0-7391-4923-2
 * Christ & Gantenbein. Around the Corner. Hatje & Cantz, 2012. ISBN 978-3-7757-3381-6 [co-authored with Victoria Easton]
 * Architektur leitet sich von Architektur ab. in: Werk, Bauen + Wohnen, No. 9, Zürich, 2014.
 * Mais Além!. in: Valerio Olgiati. Indexnewspaper, No. 5, Porto, 2016.
 * Bruno Taut - Glass House at Cologne. in: Harry Francis Mallgrave, David Leatherbarrow, Alexander Eisenschmidt (eds.) The Companions to the History of Architecture, Volume IV, Twentieth-Century Architecture, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., London, 2017. ISBN 978-1-444-33851-5
 * Non-Referential Architecture. Ideated by Valerio Olgiati; Written by Markus Breitschmid. Basel: Simonett & Baer 2018 ISBN 978-3-906313-19-1
 * Nicht-Referenzielle Architektur. Gedacht von Valerio Olgiati; Geschrieben von Markus Breitschmid. Basel: Simonett & Baer 2018 ISBN 978-3-906313-20-7
 * Non-Referential Architecture. Ideated by Valerio Olgiati; Written by Markus Breitschmid. 2nd edition, Zurich: Park Books 2019 ISBN 978-3-03860-142-5
 * Nicht-Referenzielle Architektur. Gedacht von Valerio Olgiati; Geschrieben von Markus Breitschmid. 2. Auflage, Zürich: Park Books 2019 ISBN 978-3-03860-141-8
 * Architettura Non-Referenziale. Ideato da Valerio Olgiati; Scritto da Markus Breitschmid. Zurich: Park Books 2019 ISBN 978-3-03860-143-2
 * "Architektur der Berge": Bruno Taut. in: Thinking in Thin Air. Anthology of a Decade Engadin Art Talks, Zurich: Lars Müller Publishers 2020 ISBN 978-3-03778-624-6
 * Arquitectura No-Referencial. Ideado por Valerio Olgiati; Escrito por Markus Breitschmid. Ciudad de México: Arquine 2020 ISBN 978-607-9489-74-8
 * Ogni edificio esiste per se stesso. in: Domus. No.1054, Milano, 2021
 * Architecture Non-Référentielle. Idéé par Valerio Olgiati; Ecrit par Markus Breitschmid. Marseille: Cosa Mentale 2021 ISBN 978-2-491039-12-7
 * 비참조적 건축. 구상 Valerio Olgiati; 저술 Markus Breitschmid. Seoul: Hoi 2023 ISBN 979-11-972696-9-1
 * Theodor Cron. Stanze italiane / Italian Rooms. Cura di / Edited by Markus Breitschmid, Enrico Molteni. Rome: Quodlibet 2024 ISBN 978-88-229-2169-7

As editor

 * Conversation with Students – Valerio Olgiati. Virginia Tech Architecture Publications, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9794296-3-7
 * A Modern Milieu – Julius Meier-Graefe. Architectura et Ars Series, Volume 1, Virginia Tech Architecture Publications, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9794296-0-6
 * Thoughts on Building. Corporis Publisher for Architecture, Art, and Photography, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9795472-8-7
 * K + N House at Wollerau – Valerio Olgiati. Architecture Case Study, Volume 11, Corporis Publisher for Architecture, Art, and Photography, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9802274-9-9
 * Olgiati. English Edition. Birkhäuser, 2011. ISBN 978-3-0346-0783-4 (text edited with Leina Gonzalez; also available in German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese editions)
 * Seattle Central Library – Rem Kohlhaas. Architecture History Case Study No.15, Corporis Publisher for Architecture, Art, and Photography, 2013. ISBN 978-0-9893936-5-2
 * Architecture and the Ambient – Mario Botta. Architectura et Ars Series, Volume 2, Virginia Tech Architecture Publications, 2013. ISBN 978-0-9893936-5-2