Architecture professor Markus Breitschmid was invited to write the opening chapter of a new book titled Thinking in Thin Air published by Lars Müller Publishers. The book is an anthology of the fabled Engadin Art Talks (E.A.T.), held annually high up in the Alps. The book contains contributions by many internationally recognized artists and writers.

Over the past ten years, more than 170 international artists, architects (e.g. Rem Koolhaas, Peter Zumthor), designers, and writers have come to the E.A.T. as guests and have presented their projects, ideas, and visions of how our world – and the built-environment specifically – might look like in the future. The correspondence between the members of the Crystal Chain, a group comprising architects and artist established in winter 1919 by Bruno Taut, provides a theoretical basis for the Engadin Art Talks.

Breitschmid has published several essays on the work of Bruno Taut, focusing on the architect’s theoretical work in particular. Breitschmid’s introductory chapter for this book focuses on the all-encompassing understanding of building as the essence of human endeavor in the way it was propagated by Taut.