0 Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft
Confëdëration suisse
Confederazione Svizzera
Confederaziun svizra
Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA
Bern, 24thAugust 2021
Ministerial Conversation on the high-qualityBaukultur in Venice on 22 September 2021, in
conjunction with the Biennale Architettura 2021.
Dear Minister,
In my role as Minister of Culture and in acknowledgement of your country’s commitment to cultural
endeavours, I have the honour of addressing this letter to you.
In January 2018, the European Ministers of Culture adopted the Davos DeclarationTowards a high-
quality Baukultur for Europe. Since then, efforts to improve the quality of our built environment have
been strengthened on all levels. Today, the world’s greatest challenges, such as climate change, the
loss of biodiversity,increasing inequalities,and the need to foster social cohesion are directly linked to
the quality of our livingspace, even more if considering the actual pandemic crisis,
The theme of this year's Venice Architectural Biennale 'How will we live together? ’ addresses these
very concerns. It therefore seems to be the ideal moment to consider the contribution of high-quality
architecture and Baukultur from a political point of view.
Switzerland would like to take up this opportunity and is organising an event in the form of a ministerial
conversation to take place on 22 September 2021, between 7pm and 9pm, at the Fondazione Cini,
San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, to which I have the pleasure to invite you personally.
The event willconsist of a moderated conversation of a small number of European Ministers of
Culture, discussing the importance of the quality of our built environment for people’s weII-being. We
would not expect a series of statements, rather an interactive and livelydebate. Consideration can be
given to the latest developments in this regard, such as the Davos Baukultur Quality System, the New
Leipzig Charter, the New European Bauhaus initiative,the findings of the Open Method Coordination
Group of the European Commission and other achievements. This high-levelevent will contribute to
the general discourse of the Biennale by adding a politicalpoint of view.
H.E. Ms. Anneli Ott
Minister of Culture
Eston ia
Inselgasse 1, CH-3003 Bern
www.edi.admin.ch
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Switzerland is organising this event in partnership with Europa Nostra. The event will be open to the
public by invitation, and international and local guests are expected to attend. The ministerial
conversation will be followedby a reception. Every care will be taken to ensuring that protection
schemes and rules in place to protectagainst COVID-19 are respected. For all further information,as
well as for the preparation and coordination of the event, 1 invite your services to contact us at
[email protected],
In the certain knowledge that your participationwiII make a decisive contributionto this event and in
anticipationof welcoming you to it, please accept, Madame, the assurance of my highest
consideration
Federal Councillor