For three generations, master builders and architects Nicolaus Hartmann shaped and coloured the landscape and the building culture of the Grisons. The Hartmanns’ works and designs are still well present today, especially in the Engadine, bearing testimony to an era of upheaval and cultural change. The then-blossoming tourism sector demanded a well-functioning infrastructure, which translated into such architectural products as fine hotels, hydro power stations and the structures of the Rhaetian Railway.

One particular feature in the architecture of Nicolaus Hartmann Jr., the builder of the Engadine Museum, is his use of traditional local building forms and materials. As a co-founder of the ‘Heimatschutz’ local heritage preservation movement, he grew to become a key practitioner of the so-called ‘Bündner Heimat’ style. Our exhibition follows in the Hartmanns’ footsteps, highlighting their most important architectural projects and achievements and setting these in the context of the major issues of the times.

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