Mario Botta

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Botta, Mario (1943- ), Swiss architect,

internationally known for highly original designs that combine


modern architectural styles with local building traditions. While
imposing a sense of order and clarity, his buildings also respond to
the natural and the built environment.

Botta was born in Mendrisio in the Swiss canton of Trisio. He was a


drafting apprentice in a Lugano building firm from 1958 to 1961, and
from 1961 to 1964 he studied design at the Liceo Artistico in Milan,
Italy. From 1964 he studied architecture at the Istituto Universario di
Architettura in Venice, Italy, graduating in 1969. He worked briefly
with French architect Le Corbusier in 1965 and with American
architect Louis I. Kahn in 1969. Kahn’s emphasis on symmetry along
a central axis and the geometry of Le Corbusier’s work are especially
evident in Botta’s early works. These are mostly single-family houses
in Switzerland. A typical example is his Casa Bianchi (1971-1973,
Riva San Vitale, Switzerland), a simple, geometric volume sliced
through by a skylight that extends across the roofline along the front
of the building. Like many of Botta’s houses, the Casa Bianchi
conforms to the steep Swiss terrain, with an entrance on the top
floor and lower floors that step down the hillside. Botta carefully
chose the texture and color of stone and other building materials to
blend in with the landscape and surrounding buildings. Gradually
the austere simplicity of his early designs gave way to a more
complex and expressive style characterized by the use of
asymmetrical structures and bold colors.

As his reputation grew, Botta received commissions for larger works,


projects that allowed him to respond to developed urban
environments. These commissions include the Administration
Building, Banque de l’État, Fribourg, Switzerland (1977-1982); offices
for the Banca del Gottardo, Lugano, Switzerland (1982-1988); Evry
Cathedral, France (1988-1994); the Museum of Modern Art in San
Francisco, California (1989-1994); and the Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
(1990). He continued to design single-family houses, his most widely
praised being the Casa Rotunda at Stabio, Switzerland (1981-1982),
an upright, brick cylinder punctuated with broad vertical and
horizontal openings.1

1"Botta, Mario," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft


Corporation. All rights reserved.

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