Low Tech: Procedures, Actors, Concepts
14 and 15 November 2025 in Schlatt, Switzerland
The 44th History of Technology Conference took place on 14 and 15 November at the Klostergut Paradies in Schlatt, bringing together around 50 researchers, practitioners and enthusiasts under the guiding theme “Low-Tech: Procedures, Actors, Concepts.” Hosted by the Iron Library Foundation, the event explored a topic of growing global significance at a moment of rapid technological change. For the first time, the entire conference was held in English, an important step that mirrored its increasingly international reach, with speakers travelling from Singapore, India, the USA, and across Europe.
The conference opened with an evocative pre-conference event led by architect and artist Thomas Horvath, inventor of the “zero-wind kite.” As guests guided his floating, low-tech constructions over the Rhine Falls, they encountered a hands-on example of how simple materials and embodied knowledge can yield elegant and adaptive technologies. This atmospheric introduction set the tone for two days of reflection on how low-tech has been imagined, contested and reimagined across diverse historical and cultural contexts.
Across six thematic panels, the scientific advisory board curated a rich programme ranging from historical analyses to ecological, political and conceptual perspectives. Contributions on the first day moved between high-tech laboratories and everyday environments: low-tech strategies in AI systems, vernacular cooling in Singapore, reinterpretations of Meiji Japan’s bridges, and hidden simplicities in computing history. A guided visit to the Moser & Cie watch factory highlighted how simple technologies and precision craftsmanship continue to shape modern engineering.
Further presentations traced the quiet endurance of infrastructural low-tech—from mills and piping systems to children’s scooters as tools for mobility, and necessity as the mother of invention in the materially limited German war economy. Day two shifted attention to artisanship, tools and institutional visions. Speakers examined zardozi embroidery in India, the interpretive power of hand tools, evolving cultures of craft, resource-conserving strategies in GDR medical engineering, and attempts to institutionalise low tech at the TU in Berlin. Discussions repeatedly underscored that low-tech is neither nostalgic nor inferior; it is a dynamic, relational concept shaped by cultural practices, material constraints and social needs.
In his closing synthesis, Stefan Krebs of the University of Luxembourg wove together the conference’s conceptual and empirical strands, highlighting the urgency of low-tech thinking in an age of global challenges.
Participants also explored the Iron Library and the Paradies estate, whose architecture and collections embody the longstanding interplay of culture, technology and craftsmanship.
With its vibrant exchange, international participation and intellectual depth, the 44th conference reaffirmed the Iron Library’s role as a leading forum for important reflection on the history of technology. Papers from the event will appear in the library’s journal “Ferrum” in 2026.
