Ernst Gisel

Ernst Gisel was the son of a farmer from the Zurich district of Wollishofen. After training as a draftsman, Gisel studied at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts from 1940 to 1942 under Hans Vogelsanger. After graduating in 1945, he worked in the office of Alfred Roth. In 1945, he co-founded an independent studio with Ernst Schaer. During the 1950s and 1960s, he designed several churches in Switzerland (Effretikon 1961, Reinach 1963), as well as the church At Jacob's Ladder (1971) in Prague. In 1966, he was appointed an honorary member of the BDA (Association of German Architects). In 1967, the city of Stuttgart awarded him the Paul Bonatz Prize. In 1988, he received the Hugo Häring Prize, the highest architectural accolade in Baden-Württemberg. From 1968 to 1969, he taught at ETH Zurich and from 1969 to 1971 at TU Karlsruhe. From 1968 to 1979, he was an extraordinary member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. In 1999, he dedicated his house with a studio to ETH Zurich. In 2004, ETH Zurich awarded him an honorary doctorate.