Few people have left their mark on Swiss architecture like Miroslav Šik. Together with his assistant and colleague Luca Ortelli, the architect from Prague developed a new concept of architecture at the Chair of Fabio Reinhart at ETH in the 1980s, from which a movement was to grow: analogue architecture. Turning away from architectural modernism, and as a way out of postmodernism, they taught their students to work with references and to poetically alienate them. The focus also shifted to the examination of (forgotten) building traditions. The young architects were intensively supervised and had to collect image references, and in the design courses the students initially drew atmospheric perspectives by hand. It was the first time after the departure of Aldo Rossi that a school was established within the architecture department at ETH. Šik provided a theoretical foundation and attracted media attention through his combative texts and sharp-tongued statements in interviews.

After this first phase of teaching, he shifted to practice, notably building the Catholic parish centers in Egg and Morges, and then resumed teaching, first in Prague, then at EPFL Lausanne, and finally at ETH again from 1999. He taught as a professor in Zurich until 2018, almost twenty years. Less radical than before, he now conveyed a practical, conciliatory architectural language with elements of regionalism, traditionalism, and modernism. This style is therefore referred to as “oldnew architecture.” At the same time, Šik continued to build, and he represented Switzerland at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012. Today, he runs a joint architectural practice with Daniela Frei and Marc Mayor. The book Analogue Oldnew Architecture, focused on his teachings at ETH, was published in 2019.

Miroslav Šik has trained and influenced countless successful architects over the decades. His students included Christian Kerez, Andrea Deplazes, and Andreas Hild, to name just a few. He has now been awarded the Prix Meret Oppenheim, the Swiss Grand Prix of Art, which is awarded annually by the Federal Office of Culture, for his life's work.