Poster A1 Urania by Gioia Loretz

The selected view by Gioia Loretz and the Designers` Club for Fabrication shows the Urania Observatory in Zurich. The Urania Society was founded in 1888 by the astronomer Wilhelm Förster to convey astronomical insights to the public. Around 1900, a huge administrative center was planned along the city`s transverse axis. The fact that a public observatory was also part of the planning is a pioneering act. It is the oldest in Switzerland and has always been accessible to the general public. The Urania axis was designed by Gustav Gull, and construction began in 1905. Due to the outbreak of the First World War, only part of the design was implemented, including the public observatory, which opened in 1907. The 51-meter-high tower is the first concrete structure in Zurich, and the 12-ton telescope was a sensation at the time. The color-correcting Fraunhofer two-lens system was developed by the Carl Zeiss optical workshop in Jena and made the Urania Observatory unique in Europe. The tower was almost demolished in 1936 due to loss-making operations. The building at that time was not yet connected to the buildings facing the Limmat River. The original Art Nouveau lettering of the Urania can be found reconstructed and supplemented as the title on our poster.