Oskar Reinhart Collection 'Am Römerholz'

The Geneva-based architect Maurice Turrettini (1878-1932) built the Villa ‘Am Römerholz’ between 1915 and 1918 in a grand style that drew on past buildings for Jakob Heinrich Ziegler-Sulzer (1859-1930), an industrialist from Winterthur, on an elevated site at the edge of the forest. As a model he followed the architecture built for the upper classes that had grown up in the green spaces on the periphery of cities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1925 Turrettini was commissioned by Oskar Reinhart, the villa’s new owner, to add a gallery to house his art collection.
In the late 1960s, after the death of Oskar Reinhart, the villa was renovated to make sure the museum conformed to modern standards. Fundamental alterations were made to the original building, especially the place of residence. The Zurich-based architects Annette Gigon and Mike Guyer, who were entrusted with the renovation of the site from 1996 to 1998 by the Swiss Confederation, restored the former character of the building, which had been sacrificed when the villa was converted into a museum, by putting back some of the original features and reconstructing the close links to the splendid grounds. In the area between the villa and the new picture gallery, the architects created three new exhibition rooms. Here they gave free rein to their contemporary ideas, while also respecting the aim of the original architecture. The result is a harmonious building combining both old and new.

Oskar Reinhart Collection