Trix and Robert Haussmann of Zurich have followed contemporary architecture's transformation from classical Modernism via Post-Modernism down to the so-called "New Simplicity" from the angle of their own creative activity. Far from accepting this transformation without comment, the two have from the start taken a course that still makes it possible for them to criticize the everyday things we surround ourselves with in a most stimulating way.Thus in the course of their recherche curieuse Trix and Robert Haussmann have not been afraid to set designing furniture, textiles and porcelain on a par with designing buildings. Admittedly this happened less in the context of familiar design theories than as part of highly self-confident crossing of boundaries. The concept of manierismo critico which the Haussmanns once used to describe one of their working phases, vividly evokes an artistic balancing act that is fed equally by intellectual and creative joy in experiment.It is almost self-evident that Trix and Robert Haussmann are still considered border crossers on the Swiss scene today. Anyone who handles arcades, station extensions, detached houses, conversions and extensions with the same proverbial meticulousness as a columned cupboard, a music chair or a milk glass, at the same time ceaselessly indulging in literary aphorisms and intellectual word-play, really does attract the charge of kicking against the pricks. Intellectual curiosity, sound cultural and historical knowledge and rigorous creative seriousness, paired with a suitable portion of criticism of self and civilization, clearly raise the copious work of this duo, who complement each other sowonderfully, well above the mass of creative people of our day.

Sometimes it almost seems as if Trix and Robert Haussm.