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UZH Journal

Upside Down

Georg-Büchner-Platz auf dem Campus Irchel

Standing on Georg-Büchner-Platz on Irchel Campus, you could be forgiven for thinking your feet weren’t touching the ground. Rather, they look as though they’re reaching into the sky-blue tartan track laid down on the 40 by 40 meter square. Upside down, so to speak. This is reminiscent of the protagonist Lenz in Georg Büchner’s (1813 –1837) novella of the same name, who paces through the mountains with nigh manic fervor. “He felt no fatigue, except sometimes it annoyed him that he could not walk on his head,” the novella reads. Inaugurated in 1995, Georg-Büchner-Platz was designed by famous Swiss graphic designer, artist and sculptor Gottfried Honegger (1917– 2016). The sky-blue square is surrounded by rugged concrete, with the University’s department building as well as a 17-meter steel column towering high above. A metal plaque points towards the origins of the square’s name, citing Büchner’s Lenz.

Gottfried Honegger’s aim was to create a place for people to linger, a spot to trigger people’s imagination and creativity. And possibly that’s exactly how people come up with new ideas – ultimately propelling art and science – by trying to take an entirely different view of the world. Upside down, for example.

By the way, Georg Büchner was the almost ideal combination of artist and scientist. Not only did he write brilliant literary texts, but he was also a naturalist. Büchner earned his doctoral degree at the University of Zurich in 1836 with a treatise on the nervous system of fish, and went on to be appointed privatdozent. Shortly afterwards, he fell ill with typhoid fever and died at the tender age of 24.Roger Nickl

Weiterführende Informationen

“He felt no fatigue, except sometimes it annoyed him that he could not walk on his head.”

Georg Büchner

Pictured

Georg-Büchner-Platz on the Irchel Campus of the UZH
Image: Frank Brüderli