Verena Huber (b. 1938) grew up in the Huber House in Riehen, designed by Paul Artaria and Hans Schmidt. After completing secondary school (Gymnasium) and the foundation course, she studied in the Fachklasse für Innenausbau (specialist programme in interior architecture) at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zurich under Willy Guhl. Prior to this, she completed an internship at Wohnhilfe with Reni Trüdinger. This collaboration had a lasting influence on Verena Huber, and the two women developed a lifelong friendship.

Alongside running her own interior architecture practice, Verena Huber was actively involved in numerous professional associations throughout her career. From 1969 to 1973, she served as President of the Vereinigung Schweizer Innenarchitekten VSI (today VSI.ASAI), and from 1976 to 1980 as President of the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI). In 1972, she also organised the international congress “Mitbestimmung im Wohnungsbau” (“Co-determination in Housing Construction”) in Zurich.

As a member of the Coordination Group of International Organizations for Environmental Design (COG), she played an important role in building international professional networks. Through this work, she developed a particular interest in Eastern Europe and even learned Russian. Thanks to the contacts and friendships she established, she was able to undertake numerous study trips in close exchange with local people. These journeys focused not only on architecture but also on the broader cultural and social realities of everyday life. She was especially interested in the different values and lifestyles she encountered in the countries of the Eastern Bloc, where consumerism played a less dominant role than in Western Europe.

From 1980 to 2003, Verena Huber taught future architects at the Technikum Winterthur (now ZHAW). In addition to her teaching activities, she was also active in housing research and worked as a specialist journalist.

In 2022, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture awarded Verena Huber the Swiss Grand Prix Design in recognition of her outstanding and multifaceted life’s work.

The ai-s archive owes its very existence to Verena Huber’s initiative. During the pandemic, she began reviewing her own archive and realised that many of her colleagues possessed an immense body of knowledge and work that urgently needed to be preserved for future generations. This was particularly important in the field of interior architecture, where projects and their material traces are often short-lived.

As an interior architect, Verena Huber designed public interiors for a wide range of institutions. She was particularly drawn to interior spaces because they represent the point at which architecture meets the human scale.

Throughout her career, Huber explored fundamental questions of housing and everyday living. Early on, she conducted housing research on behalf of the Swiss federal government, focusing on housing quality and the relationship between people and their living environments. Following extensive study trips across Europe, particularly in Scandinavia, she developed a practical methodology to help people make informed decisions about their homes. Together with the working group Dokumentation Wohnen (Documentation Living), she offered housing consultations and developed educational materials on the subject of living for use in schools.

During the 1970s, Huber’s practice expanded significantly, leading to commissions for restaurants, hotels, retail spaces, libraries and passenger ships. Together with the architect Jakob Zweifel, she was responsible for the interior design of the renovated nurses’ residence at the University Hospital Zurich. Another pioneering project was Hand-Art, a shop founded in Zurich’s Old Town in 1975. Working closely with textile designers, Huber created a retail environment whose interior and product range reflected the atmosphere of a workshop, introducing an innovative approach to shop design.

Her practice also designed the interiors of the SBB holiday settlement in Scuol, designed by the architect Max Kasper. For the project, Huber developed a restrained and coherent design concept encompassing furniture and artistic elements. In the design of the passenger ships operating on Lake Constance, she collaborated with the artist Rosmarie Vogt.

Even after closing her interior architecture practice, Huber remained actively engaged in cultural and social initiatives. Through the association MitOst, she initiated the collaborative project Türen auf – wie wohnen wir, wie wohnen andere (Doors Open – How We Live, How Others Live). Project groups in six countries documented different ways of living and dwelling, presenting their findings in a travelling exhibition that toured throughout Eastern Europe and reached as far as Siberia. Huber regularly accompanied Swiss groups on visits to the exhibition venues, fostering dialogue and cultural exchange across borders.