Events

Mario Botta and Guido Canali to discuss architecture at Cersaie 2018 | by Elena Romani

At Cersaie, the two renowned architects Mario Botta and Guido Canali will discuss the theme of architectural projects with moderator Fulvio Irace. The event, to be held on Thursday 27 September at 4:00 pm in the Architecture Gallery, is organised as part of the 10th edition of Cersaie’s “building, dwelling, thinking” cultural programme, which hosts leading international figures from the world of architecture and design.

Mario Botta (Mendrisio 1943) began his career with the construction of single-family houses in Canton Ticino, then went on to design many different types of buildings including schools, banks, administrative centres, libraries, museums and places of worship.

His works include: MOMA museum of modern art in San Francisco; Cathedral of the Resurrection in Evry; the Jean Tinguely museum in Basel; the Cymbalista Synagogue and Jewish Heritage Centre in Tel Aviv; the municipal library in Dortmund; the Dürrenmatt Centre in Neuchâtel; the MART museum of modern and contemporary art of Trento and Rovereto; Kyobo Tower and the Leeum Museum in Seoul; the administrative buildings of Tata Consultancy Services in New Delhi and Hyderabad; the Chiesa Papa Giovanni XXIII in Seriate; renovation of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan; the Chiesa del Santo Volto in Turin; the Tschuggen Berg Oase wellness centre in Arosa; the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte; the Campari headquarters and residences in Sesto San Giovanni; the Tsinghua University library in Beijing; urban redevelopment of the former Appiani area in Treviso; the Twelve at Hengshan hotel in Shanghai; the Garnet chapel in Zillertal, Austria; the Tsinghua University Art Museum in Beijing; and the recent Fiore di Pietra restaurant on Monte Generoso.

He has won numerous international awards and recognitions. An honorary member of many cultural institutions, he has also received honorary doctorates from universities in Argentina, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Brazil and Switzerland.

When the Università della Svizzera Italiana was being built in 1996, he was commissioned to design its architecture faculty, the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio. He also designed the Theatre of Architecture in Mendrisio, a structure that will further contribute to the cultural debate on architecture and will open for exhibitions in the autumn of 2018.

Guido Canali (Parma 1935) is an award-winning architect with a studio in Parma and branches in Siena and Munich. He has held a professorship at the IUAV university of Venice and currently teaches Architectural Composition at the Faculty of Architecture of Ferrara. During his career he has worked on both living spaces (such as residential complexes based on the “Po Valley house” model in Parma, Reggio Emilia, Sassuolo and Noceto) and workplaces. He designed the Smeg factory in Guastalla, the Pinko headquarters in Fidenza and the brand-new Prada factory in Valvigna, continuing the work he did for the company at the factories in Montevarchi and Montegranaro. The “garden factory” model with rooftop plants and trees, terraces and internal gardens is a distinctive feature of his architecture.

“Together with Guido Canali we developed a shared approach to the theme of the factory and workplace based on three fundamental principles: respect for workers and their work, a shared vision of the concept of uncompromising quality, and recognition of the importance of detail as an expression of efficiency and of an authentic working culture and not just as an aesthetic consideration,” commented the client Patrizio Bertelli, CEO of Prada Group.

With his uniquely rigorous approach to the discipline of the “architect as craftsman”, Guido Canali has also carried out restoration and refurbishing projects for historical buildings and museums, earning a reputation as one of the leading specialists in the field of Italian museum architecture. His Siena-based studio renovated the old hospital complex of Santa Maria della Scala and converted it into a museum and congress centre. In Milan, he worked on a project to convert the former Manifattura Tabacchi (tobacco factory) neighbourhood into a cultural, residential and commercial complex which is also home to the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo. He also designed Milan’s new Museo del Duomo, an underground museum that has undergone extensive renovation and refurbishment work and was unveiled in 2013.

See the complete >> Cersaie 2018 calendar of events <<

 

September 2018