Hidden Shoal have just released the new album from continent spanning three piece, The Caseworker (Switzerland, USA and UK). Letters from the Coast sees the band exude the feel of a shoegazing Velvet Underground as if reared by the Flying Nun label: the perfect balance of drone and chime. Perfectly intoxicating.

SPONSOR

Photographer Christian Tagliavini lives and works in Lugano, Switzerland and has been published in magazines such as Eyemazing and toBE. This work is from his series’ 1503 (2010) and Dame Di Cartone (2008).

Maybe it’s my lack of a meaty posterior, but I often have trouble sitting on floors comfortably. Designed by Alejandro Aravena for Swiss design firm Vitra, Chairless is a strap inspired by a similar device used by the Ayoreo Indians of Paraguay to make it easier to sit down wherever you are without having to wrap your arms around your knees. While I’m not sure how this solves the padding issue, I wouldn’t mind having this thing every time I get stuck in a crowded train station or waiting for a friend in a public square.

Vals, Switzerland, is known for their thermal baths and pristine landscape views of the Swiss Alps. Vals is not known, however, for clever underground architecture. But it is in Vals where a breathtaking home was built underground to eliminate destructive processes at land level. Designed by architectural firm SeArch and Christian Muller, the home is accessible by a a steep set of stone steps built into the incline that the home is built in. A central, circular patio is lined with large window openings, which allow for a heavy supply of natural light and impressive views of the Alpine Vista, which sits across the narrow valley. The house has all the comforts of a traditional home, but with added underground travel paths that are reminiscent of military pathways. And since the home lies underground and not on the surface, the architects have drastically reduced the need for air conditioning and heat.

Epsilon is a cool game inspired by the activation of the real-life particle accelerator, the LHC, in the CERN lab in Switzerland. The aim of the game is to move ‘portals’ around to move a particle, which obeys laws of physics, so that it hits tokens and lands into the wormhole in each level.

SPONSOR

Yann Gross’ photos of tattooed bikers, cowboys, drag races, and Confederate-flag-adorned trailer homes are unnerving documents of the American experience. But his subjects aren’t American, they’re residents of the Rhone Valley in Gross’ native Switzerland. Judging from his photos, Europeans don’t necessarily look down their noses at the U S of A. Some of them actually celebrate it, blemishes and all.

A red carpet has enveloped the surface in and around the financial district of St. Gallen, a north-eastern city of Switzerland. A result of a competition, the ‘Stadtlounge’ (citylounge) was designed by artist Pipilotti Rist along with the Carlos Martinez architectural firm. The redness meanders through the functional office buildings, creating an inspiring and fun people-friendly space.