Catalogue Mendrisio Academy Press

Light is the essential medium across which space, forms, and colors become perceivable to the human eye. This collection of studies investigates the use of light – natural and artificial – in Christian architecture and art from late antiquity to the Baroque, revealing its complex symbolism and the modes in which it comes to be enacted. Thus, the following are analyzed: the architectonic dispositions that regulate daylight, the material culture that produces artificial illumination, the understandings of and reflections on the effects of light and shadow observed in literary, theological, and philosophical texts, as well as works of art, be they illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, frescos, or stained glass windows.

Texts by Sergio Bettini, Anna Bülau, Elena Castelli De Angelis, Fabio Fernetti, Francesca Galli, Iuliana Gavril, Vladimir Ivanovici, Brigitte Kurmann-Schwarz, Frank Martin, Mira Mocan, Daniela Mondini, Bettina Preiswerk, Nicolas Reveyron, Barbara Schellewald, Nadine Schibille, Angela Schiffhauer, Sophie Schweinfurth, Xenia Stolzenburg.

During the spring semester of 2014, the students of the Miller design studio at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture worked on the urban plan and architecture of Basel, focusing in particular on the area that extends along the Aeschengraben and the St. Alban-Anlage, where an extensive restructuring is planned. The work resulted in twelve projects, presented on display at the headquarters of the Basilese Assicurazioni and now brought together in this catalog.

This second issue of the series “Quaderni” from the BSc course in “Construction Systems and Processes” is devoted to the masterpiece of Rino Tami, the Cantonal Library in Lugano (1939-1941). The second year students at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture, guided by professor Franz Graf, carried out practical work on the project articulated in the collection and analysis of original documentation, the redrafting of the building plans and the production of axonometric projections and constructional models made to scale. A selection of the material collected for the course, with the original drawings and period photographs, together with a historical reading of the building, a structural analysis and a selection of students’ works make up this issue, which is intended not only to demonstrate the presence in Ticino of a notable architectural work, but also to furnish the operators responsible for its conservation with pointers about appropriate ways of carrying out maintenance or restoration work.

The book contains many previously unpublished essays on the theory and history of twentieth-century art and architecture, written as a tribute to Bruno Reichlin, architect and professor at various universities, well known for having developed an innovative approach to the analysis of the work of architecture, based on the development of critical instruments derived from the criticism of the literary text and art, and for his battles to preserve the architectural heritage of the twentieth century. The collection is structured in five sections devoted to the theory of art and architecture; changes in construction processes resulting from the introduction of new materials, techniques and technologies; analysis of one or more architectural works; methodological issues and practices bound up with the restoration of modern buildings.

Texts by: Joseph Abram, Fritz Achleitner, Paolo Amaldi, Tim Benton, Christian Bischoff, Martin Boesch, Yve-Alain Bois, François Burkhardt, Mario Carpo, Jean-Pierre Cêtre Giorgio Ciucci, Jean-Louis Cohen, Jürg Conzett, Wessel de Jonge, Yvan Delemontey, Catherine Dumont d’Ayot, Kenneth Frampton, Hartmut Frank, Aurelio Galfetti, Roberto Gargiani, Franz Graf, Philippe Grandvoinnet, Giuliano Gresleri, Roberta Grignolo, Alberto Grimoldi, Thomas Hasler, Ulrike Jelhe-Schulte Strathaus, Jacques Lucan, Guillemette Morel Journel, Nicola Navone, Werner Oechslin, Carlo Olmo, Luca Ortelli, Danièle Pauly, Carlo Piccardi, Marko Pogacnik, Sergio Poretti, Arthur Rüegg, Martin Steinmann, Adolph Stiller, Christian Sumi, Letizia Tedeschi, Ana Tostões, Ruggero Tropeano, Ivo Trümpy, France Vanlaethem, Annalisa Viati Navone, Daniele Vitale.

The book deals with the troubled  issue of the relation between legislation and the protection of twentieth-century architecture through a constructive dialogue between the competencies of specialists in various fields: architects, curators, lawyers and security experts. The questions raised by the topic are analysed in theoretical terms but also in their immediate operative relevance, through a discussion of the principles underlying the principles subtending the regulations in force in various sectors.

Texts in Italian, English, French or German by Bernard Bauchet, Martin Boesch, Marco Borghi, Andrea Canziani, Mauro Gandolla, Wolfgang Karl Göhner, Markus Gehri, Daniele Graber, Roberta Grignolo, Pierino Lestuzzi, Walter Maffioletti, Joe A. Manser, Dieter Martin, Gustavo Milani, Tapani Mustonen, Barbara Neubauer, Terjie Nypan, Valeria Pracchi, Régis Prunet, Bruno Reichlin, Oskar Spital-Frenking, Ana Tostões.

Pier Luigi Nervi (1891-1979), last century’s most famous Italian engineer, devised many of his architectural works by using sophisticated scale models which provided a preview of their stability. The result of elevated scientific knowledge and craft skills, these models accurately reflect Nervi’s ideas, always convinced of the necessary synthesis between engineering and architecture, science and art. The book is the result of lengthy historical archival research, enriched by a very full iconographic apparatus that reveals the exceptional nature of these “miniature masterpieces”.

Giulio Minoletti (1910-1981), a Milanese architect, was notable for his remarkable versatility, his flair for experimental research into forms, materials, polychromes and hybrids between artistic genres that characterized his work as architect, builder and designer of housing estates, green areas, swimming pools and objects. This publication brings together the work of analysis of Minoletti’s works conducted by the students of the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture during the spring semester of 2013, in collaboration with the Archivio del Moderno in Mendrisio, which preserves Minoletti’s archives. The complexity and variety of his output is firstly placed in its Italian and international setting in a timeline that opens the publication, and then illustrated through a broad collection of projects. An initial essay, a brief biography and a portfolio of recent photographs complete the volume.

The 78 diploma projects proposed in 2013 by the students of the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture in the design studios run by Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus, Walter Angonese, Michele Arnaboldi, Valentin Bearth, Martin Boesch, Mario Botta, Marianne Burkhalter and Christian Sumi, Antonio Citterio, Marc Collomb, Quintus Miller, Valerio Olgiati, Jonathan Sergison.

Giulio Minoletti (1910-1981) graduated in architecture in 1931, when he was just 21 years old, after experiences that included working as an illustrator and fashion designer during his university studies. At the Politecnico di Milano he completed a training with a traditionalist matrix, but at the same time observed with interest the work of Le Corbusier and Gropius, showing himself a firm supporter of modernity. His long professional career spanned two successful seasons, the thirties and the period of reconstruction, and was characterized by an unusual versatility of interests: he was represented at all the editions of the Milan Triennial 1930-1957, an assistant at the School of Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano 1930-1949 and active in the architectural debate in Milan. Minoletti’s work covered the whole scale, ranging from the design of the city to that of the object, with an ease that was the sign of a “wholly Italian versatility”, as Gio Ponti observed.

Giulio Minoletti’s professional archive, of which this volume presents the analytical inventory, is preserved in the Archivio del Moderno in Mendrisio.

This first “Quaderno” from the BSc course in “Construction Systems and Processes” is devoted to a building by Rino Tami from the fifties, the Avegno Depot of the Maggia S.A. Hydroelectric Workshops. The second year students at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture, guided by professor Franz Graf, carried out practical work on the Depot articulated in the collection and analysis of original documentation, the redrafting of the building plans and the production of axonometric projections and constructional models made to scale. A selection of the material collected for the course, with the original drawings and period photographs, together with a historical reading of the building, a structural analysis and a selection of students’ works make up this issue, which is intended not only to demonstrate the presence in Ticino of a notable architectural work, but also to furnish the operators responsible for its conservation with pointers about appropriate ways of carrying out maintenance or restoration work.

«I’m gazing at photos of construction work. It is a fund acquired by the Academy of Mendrisio, representing the construction of Linea 1 of the Milan subway. Photographs with no artistic purpose, a pure record of the facts. No literature, no flights of fancy or female distractions, pure factual concreteness. Photos by engineers. Yet so beautiful, so full of stories.»
Gianni Biondillo

This collection of essays traces a promenade, discontinuous and multi-directional, amid the themes, interests, curiosities and concerns that marked the creation and guided the design path of some of the works of Le Corbusier, beginning with his research in the thirties into the «elegant solution», the form of a “reticent” structure or fluid internal spatial qualities, and down to the development in the sixties of original, proliferating, «open building» compositions, above all in the trend towards receptiveness to multiple interpretations that the observer feels authorized to make on the basis of his culture.

Bruno Reichlin (Lucerne, 1941), an architect with a professional activity in restoration, was a professor at the Institut d’Architecture of the University of Geneva until 2006 and a professor at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture until 2011. He has curated exhibitions and written essays on Alberto Sartoris, Robert Mallet Stevens, Max Bill, Frederick Kiesler, Oswald Haerdtl, Asnago and Vender, Mies van der Rohe, Carl Weidemeyer, Philip Johnson, Carlo Scarpa.

Increasingly, and today even urgently, architecture needs to be understood as an interdisciplinary culture that deals with the organization of the living space, because the world beyond it is inevitably dominated by individual branches of knowledge, whether technical, engineering, scientific, organizational and even aesthetic. And if the logic of specialized spheres of competence gains the upper hand, these fields of knowledge will be transformed from indispensable contributions into precepts that reduce the project to a collage of solutions, with overall results that will be dismal. To prevent architecture from ending up relegated to the destiny of a technical service or mere aesthetic entertainment, it is essential to continuously rethink the design process in ways that will reinforce the figure of a total operator.

Texts by Werner Oechslin, Stefano Musso, Bruno Pedretti, Christoph Frank, Sonja Hildebrand, Annemarie Jaeggi, Fulvio Irace, Manfredo di Robilant.

Projects by: Atelier Cube, Francisco and Manuel Aires Mateus, Bearth & Deplazes Architekten, Mario Botta, Bonell and Gil, Aurelio Galfetti.

The “Quaderni di Cultura del territorio” bring together all the papers and studies presented by scientists, public administrators and planners at the conferences on "Public Space in the 'Ticino City' of Tomorrow", a project funded by the Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research under the PNR 65 national research programme on "New Urban Quality", coordinated by Michele Arnaboldi, professor at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture, Università della Svizzera italiana.

Texts by João Nunes, Claudio Ferrata, Fabio Guarneri, Paolo Poggiati, Enrico Sassi.

Projects by Rino Tami, Aurelio Galfetti, Flora Ruchat Roncati and Ivo Trümpy, Jean Nouvel, Álvaro Siza, ASP Landschaftarchitekten, Bellmunt i Andreu Arquitectes Associats.

This slender volume contains five studies devoted to one of the most famous Italian architects, Marco Zanuso (1916-2001), a true pioneer of design in Milan in the second half of the last century. His achievement, interpreted principally in relation to clients and the industry that endorsed his forward-looking insights and favoured the creation of cutting-edge projects, is investigated in the essays all accompanied by a refined series of illustrations.

Texts by Alberto Bassi, Fiorella Bulegato, Maddalena Scimemi, Christian Sumi, Letizia Tedeschi.

The 106 diploma projects proposed in 2012 by the students of the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture in the design studios run by Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus, Walter Angonese, Michele Arnaboldi, Martin Boesch, Esteban Bonell, Mario Botta, Marianne Burkhalter and Christian Sumi, Antonio Citterio, Marc Collomb, Quintus Miller, Valerio Olgiati, Jonathan Sergison.

This volume brings together for the first time a selection of the writings of the Milanese architect and designer Marco Zanuso (1916-2001). Chosen from articles, conference papers, lectures and public meetings, they include a number that are unpublished. The choice of texts seeks to represent the breadth of Zanuso’s interests, ranging from new techniques of mass production to the relations between art and architecture, the role of technology in design and management methods in the design process, and his contribution to the contemporary architectural debate.

The volume is accompanied by illustrations of Zanuso’s works and projects, from the architect’s rich photographic collection.

Foreword by Bruno Reichlin, introductory essay by Roberta Grignolo.

Third edition
Winner
Studio Mumbai (India)
Candidates
Alejandro Aravena, Chile; architecten de vylder vinck taillieu, Belgium; Atelier Bow-Wow, Japan; Nuno Brandao Costa, Portugal; Angelo Bucci, Brazil; Marcus Donaghy, William Dimond, Ireland; Ecosistema urbano, Spain; Anton Garcia-Abril, Spain; Anna Heringer, Austria; Zhang Ke, China; Zhang Lei, China; LTL Architects, USA; Gurjit Singh Matharoo, India; Alberto Mozo, Chile; muf architecture/art, Great Britain; Hiroshi Nakamura, Japan; Mauricio Pezo, Sofia von Ellrichshausen, Chile; Smiljan Radic, Chile; Camilo Rebelo, Portugal; Enric Ruiz-Geli, Spain; Jose Maria Saez, Ecuador; Joao Pedro Serodio, Isabel Furtado, Portugal; Dominic Stevens, Ireland; Jonathan Woolf, Great Britain; Alejandro Zaera Polo, Spain-Great Britain

This volume brings together contributions from some of the leading scholars and designers on the protection of interior space, which in the work on the architectural heritage of the twentieth century is often overshadowed by the outer shell. The various issues raised by the topic are analysed from the theoretical and thematic viewpoints, as well as in immediately functional terms through discussions of operations already completed.

Texts in Italian, English, French or German by Cecile Briolle, Andrea Canziani, Dorothea Deschermeier, Fernando Fiorino, Hartmut Frank, Emilia Garda, Michel Goutal, Roberta Grignolo, Justin Gunther, Jean-Baptiste Minnaert, Joris Molenaar, Marco Pogacnik, Bruno Reichlin, Jacques Repiquet, Giorgio Rigone, Arthur Ruegg, Paola Scaramuzza, Lynda S. Waggoner.

This dense work, containing a wealth of previously unpublished data and images, explores certain aspects of the architecture of the 1920s and 30s in relation to concepts of nationalism and internationalism in the political context of Switzerland. It does not aim to study either nationalism or internationalism in themselves, nor the dialectical and political conflicts between them, seeking only to provide a survey of certain situations in which architects openly appealed to either of these outlooks.