Werner Oechslin is professor emeritus of art history and architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich).

He is also founder of the “Stiftung Bibliothek Werner Oechslin” in Einsiedeln, Switzerland that has organized the annual international Baroque summer course since 1999 and publishes the bulletin “Scholion”. The library maintains a close relationship to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and contains not only books about architecture and art history, but also about mathematics, physics, theology, history and astronomy.

His contributions on the history of art and architecture from the fifteenth to the twentieth century have been widely published. He specializes in the theory of architecture, in Baroque, modern architecture and in eighteenth century as well as in specific problems of architectural drawing and typology and of ephemeral architecture.

He held academic positions at the University of Zurich, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Free University of Berlin, University of Geneva, and ETH Zurich.

He studied art history, archeology, philosophy and mathematics in Zurich and Rome.

He was head of the Institute of the History and Theory of Architecture / Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur (1987-2006), a member of the Board of Trustees at the Canadian Centre for Architectzure Montréal, and of the Scientific Council during the foundation of the Accademia di architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana.

His publications include Stilhülse und Kern: Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos und der evolutionäre Weg zur modernen Architektur (1994), Moderne entwerfen: Architektur und Kulturgeschichte (1999) and Kunstdenkmäler des Kantons Schwyz, Einsiedeln (Vol. I & II, 2003)with Anja Buschow Oechslin.

He was the host of the 2nd Holcim Roundtable “Re-materializing construction”, held at the Bibliothek Werner Oechslin in Einsiedeln, Switzerland in 2015.