Mario Botta

This paper will examine the presence of stripes in the work of Mario Botta, and the range of historical interpretations that the stripes have attracted, as an index of broader, and often contradictory, tendencies in his practice. These interpretations oscillate between claims for the Modernist rationality of Botta’s work on the one hand—its formal autonomy, lack of excess, and its emergence from the internal logic of its construction—and, on the other, its Post-Modern continuity with the past—its archaism, symbolic forms, and reference to traditional and regional typologies. These tensions are all revealed in the discourse surrounding Botta’s stripes.

While most writers remain silent on the matter of Botta’s stripes, a small number have made various claims about their origins. These include what appear to be chronologically and stylistically incompatible framings of Botta’s stripes: as a reference to a medieval Italian tradition of striped construction (argued by Joseph Rykwert); as an abstract form of classical rustication (proposed by Charles Jencks); and as a continuation of a 19th century Ticinese masonry tradition (presented by Kenneth Frampton).

Such interpretations oscillate between literal and abstract forms of historicism, and seem to float around Botta’s work, with no one reading ever gaining purchase as a definitive explanation of his stripes. The result might therefore be called a striped historicism, built upon multiple layers of rich speculation, myth and semantic projection. In other words, his stripes construct a “fabulation,” which will be shown to be a productive, albeit ambiguous, layering of meaning that offers new insights into some of the implicit contradictions of Botta’s work.

Stripes have adorned architectural façades for centuries, and can be found on buildings as diverse as the celebrated striped churches of medieval Italy, and Adolf Loos’s notorious unbuilt house for Josephine Baker. It is the purpose of this paper to begin to piece together an account of such varied extant and unrealised striped façades, to establish an understanding of their techniques and forms, as well as the theoretical interpretations and justifications that have been put forward in support of their use. The study is significant as there appears to be no existing historical survey of striped façades, coupled with very little discussion or analysis of the compositional operation and use of stripes in architecture. By redressing this largely overlooked body of architecture, this paper is not only able to speculate on connections between numerous striped façades over nearly one thousand years of building, but also to suggest the presence of an inherently deceptive function of stripes, that has the power to manipulate, exaggerate, clarify and confuse the appearance of the architectural façade.

ESCALAS ALTERADAS
La manipulación de la escala como detonante del proceso de diseño

Escalas alteradas está centrada en la reflexión en torno a uno de los atributos fundamentales de la forma y el espacio como lo es la escala, y en particular en su manipulación consciente como detonante o catalizador de los procesos de proyecto, aplicables fundamentalmente en la arquitectura, pero también en el diseño, el arte o incluso en las ciencias. Se propone por lo tanto como investigación en torno al pensamiento proyectual, utilizando como marco de restricción la manipulación de un atributo estratégicamente seleccionado como la escala. La escala es una cualidad genéricamente vinculante. Establece permanentemente relaciones cambiantes. Su relatividad se espeja en la de las tomas de decisión de los procesos de ideación. La escala es, en esencia, un atributo basado en la relatividad dimensional que, como artificio analítico, tiene la capacidad única de hacer emerger determinadas visiones particulares de la realidad. La alteración de la escala opera muchas veces como un eficiente recurso para cuestionar el conjunto de variables y atributos propios del proyecto de arquitectura. La mirada se renueva a partir de una reestructuración de las condiciones de observación, provocando intencionadamente una situación de extrañamiento en el objeto de nuestro diseño. Modificar sensiblemente la percepción de un atributo como la escala con la cual es percibida una entidad volumétrica-espacial, equivale a cambiar por completo la relación con el observador, con su entorno, y el rol que en él desempeñaba. La consistencia original se pone así en tela de juicio y, en este contexto, la modificación de la escala funciona como mecanismo de creación, e hipótesis operativa de evolución del proceso de diseño. El número de testimonios acerca de la manipulación de la escala en los procesos de diseño se ha demostrado abrumador y la red de relaciones, de ecos y resonancias que entre ellos se establece es infinita. Escalas alteradas organiza su reflexión en dos capítulos principales que privilegian la aproximación simultánea y diversa a la manipulación escalar, proyectada desde la mirada de disciplinas cercanas y distantes a la arquitectónica. El primer módulo identifica y reflexiona acerca de algunos conceptos fundantes de la temática propuesta. El segundo analiza el rol de la manipulación de la escala en la lógica de pensamiento proyectual de algunos (re)conocidos autores. La comunicación de la investigación se organiza en estratos paralelos aunque vinculados de manera múltiple. La progresión lineal, desde la reflexión más abstracta hasta la estructuración del material documental concreto, es transversada por inflexiones derivadas de lógicas propias del pensamiento proyectual y por un discurso apoyado fuertemente en la acústica visual de una importante selección de imágenes. Por último cabe acotar que el modo en el cual la reflexión se despliega debe también entenderse como un espejo de las cualidades lúdicas esenciales del tema propuesto, y como una invitación al disfrute de la actividad de proyecto.

ALTERED SCALING
The manipulation of scale as a starting point of the design process

Altered Scaling is centered in the thoughts around one of the main attributes of form and space, the scale, and mainly in its conscious manipulation as a starting point or catalyst of design processes, mainly applied to architecture, but also to the fields of design, art or science. Scale manipulation is therefore proposed as an investigation about project thinking, using the manipulation of such strategically chosen attribute as a restriction frame. Scale is normally a binding attribute. It permanently establishes changing relationships. Its relativity mirrors the decision making process during creation processes. Scale is, essentially, an attribute based in the dimensional relativity that, as an analytic artifice, holds the unique capacity of arising other particular views of reality. Scale altering many times works as an effective resource to question the group of variables and attributes of the architecture project itself. The view is renewed from the restructuring of the observation conditions, intentionally causing a sensation of estrangement in the object of our design. To ostensibly modify the perception of an attribute such as scale, that allows to perceive a spatial-volumetric entity, equals to a complete alteration of the relation with the observer, its surroundings, and the role he used to play. The original consistency is then questioned and, in that context, the alteration of scale operates as a mechanism of creation, and operative hypothesis of the evolution of the design process. The number of testimonies on the manipulation of scale in the design processes proved to be overwhelming, and the net of relations, echoes and resonances that could be established among them is infinite. Altered Scaling is organized in two main chapters that privilege the simultaneous and diverse approximation of scalar manipulation, projected from the view from architecture’s allied and foreign disciplines. The first module identifies and develops some foundational concepts of the proposed theme. The second analyzes the role of the scale manipulation in the project thinking logic of some well-known authors. The communication of the research is organized in parallel layers yet correlated in multiple ways. The linear progression, from the very abstract reflection to the structuration of the documented material, is transversed by inflexions derived from specific logics of architectural thinking and by a discourse strongly supported in the visual acoustics of an important selection of images. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the ways in which the study is presented should also be understood as a mirror of the essential ludic qualities of the proposed research topic, and as an invitation to enjoy the design process.

""Escalas alteradas está centrada en la reflexión en torno a uno de los atributos fundamentales de la forma y el espacio como lo es la escala, y en particular en su manipulación consciente como detonante o catalizador de los procesos de proyecto, aplicables fundamentalmente en la arquitectura, pero también en el diseño, el arte o incluso en las ciencias.
Se propone por lo tanto como investigación en torno al pensamiento proyectual, utilizando como marco de restricción la manipulación de un atributo estratégicamente seleccionado como la escala. La escala es una cualidad genéricamente vinculante.
Establece permanentemente relaciones cambiantes. Su relatividad se espeja en la de las tomas de decisión de los procesos de ideación. La escala es, en esencia, un atributo basado en la relatividad dimensional que, como artificio analítico,
tiene la capacidad única de hacer emerger determinadas visiones particulares de la realidad.
La alteración de la escala opera muchas veces como un eficiente recurso para cuestionar el conjunto de variables y atributos propios del proyecto de arquitectura.
La mirada se renueva a partir de una reestructuración de las condiciones de observación, provocando intencionadamente una situación de extrañamiento en el objeto de nuestro diseño.
Modificar sensiblemente la percepción de un atributo como la escala con la cual es percibida una entidad volumétrica-espacial, equivale a cambiar por completo la relación con el observador, con su entorno, y el rol que en él desempeñaba.
La consistencia original se pone así en tela de juicio y, en este contexto, la modificación de la escala funciona como mecanismo de creación, e hipótesis operativa de evolución del proceso de diseño.
El número de testimonios acerca de la manipulación de la escala en los procesos de diseño se ha demostrado abrumador y la red de relaciones, de ecos y resonancias que entre ellos se establece es infinita.
Escalas alteradas organiza su reflexión en dos tomos que privilegian la aproximación simultánea y diversa a la manipulación escalar, proyectada desde la mirada de disciplinas cercanas y distantes a la arquitectónica.
El primero identifica y reflexiona acerca de algunos conceptos fundantes de la temática propuesta. El segundo analiza el rol de la manipulación de la escala en la lógica de pensamiento proyectual de algunos (re)conocidos autores.
La comunicación de la investigación se organiza en estratos paralelos aunque vinculados de manera múltiple. La progresión lineal, desde la reflexión más abstracta hasta la estructuración del material documental concreto, es transversada por inflexiones derivadas de lógicas propias del pensamiento proyectual y por un discurso apoyado fuertemente en la acústica visual de una importante selección de imágenes.
Por último cabe acotar que el modo en el cual la reflexión se despliega debe también entenderse como un espejo de las cualidades lúdicas esenciales del tema propuesto, y como una invitación al disfrute de la actividad de proyecto.""

ALTERED SCALING
The manipulation of scale as a starting point of the design process. Altered Scaling is centered in the thoughts around one of the main attributes of form and space, the scale, and mainly in its conscious manipulation as a starting point or catalyst of design processes, mainly applied to architecture, but also to the fields of design, art or science. Scale manipulation is therefore proposed as an investigation about project thinking, using the manipulation of such strategically chosen attribute as a restriction frame. Scale is normally a binding attribute. It permanently establishes changing relationships. Its relativity mirrors the decision making process during creation processes. Scale is, essentially, an attribute based in the dimensional relativity that, as an analytic artifice, holds the unique capacity of arising other particular views of reality. Scale altering many times works as an effective resource to question the group of variables and attributes of the architecture project itself. The view is renewed from the restructuring of the observation conditions, intentionally causing a sensation of estrangement in the object of our design. To ostensibly modify the perception of an attribute such as scale, that allows to perceive a spatial-volumetric entity, equals to a complete alteration of the relation with the observer, its surroundings, and the role he used to play. The original consistency is then questioned and, in that context, the alteration of scale operates as a mechanism of creation, and operative hypothesis of the evolution of the design process. The number of testimonies on the manipulation of scale in the design processes proved to be overwhelming, and the net of relations, echoes and resonances that could be established among them is infinite. Altered Scaling is organized in two main chapters that privilege the simultaneous and diverse approximation of scalar manipulation, projected from the view from architecture’s allied and foreign disciplines. The first module identifies and develops some foundational concepts of the proposed theme. The second analyzes the role of the scale manipulation in the project thinking logic of some well-known authors. The communication of the research is organized in parallel layers yet correlated in multiple ways. The linear progression, from the very abstract reflection to the structuration of the documented material, is transversed by inflexions derived from specific logics of architectural thinking and by a discourse strongly supported in the visual acoustics of an important selection of images. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the ways in which the study is presented should also be understood as a mirror of the essential ludic qualities of the proposed research topic, and as an invitation to enjoy the design process.

DESCARGA GRATUITA: http://www.csic.edu.uy/renderPage/index/pageId/1021#heading_4919

Mario Botta, Ricciarda Belgiojoso, Gabriele Veneziano, Giulia Rodighiero, Benjamin Arbel, Victor Stoichita, Alain Supiot, Amina Mettouchi, Alberto Manguel, Carlo Ossola: these are the speakers of the XLVI Corso Internazionale di Alta Cultura, directed by Professor Carlo Ossola, which will be held at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice from November 16 to 19, 2021.

The Course will be dedicated to: Dimore della distanza / Habiter la distance / Distant closeness .

This study involves analysis of the sketches and the drawings produced during the design process of a house designed by Mario Botta and evaluation of the process itself. The conjecture/analysis model of design is assumed. The main outcome of the study is the findings, observations, and interpretations related with the nature of the analyzed design process. It is expected that the concerned outcomes will provide a basis, a departure point for the reconsideration, advance, and a consequent evolution of the assumed model, and a basis for further research following the same line of inquiry. ÖZET: Bu makale Mario Botta tarafından tasarlanmış bir evin tasarım süreci boyunca üretilmiş eskiz ve çizimlerinin çözümlemesini ve tasarım sürecinin değerlendirmesini içermektedir. Çözümlemede, conjecture/analysis olarak bilinen tasarım modeli kabul edilmiştir. Çalışmanın ana çıktısı incelenen tasarım sürecinin doğasına ilişkin bulgular, gözlemler ve yorumlardır. Bu çıktıların başlangıçta kabul edilen conjecture/analysis modelinin yeniden değerlendirilip, gelişmesi ve evrimleşmesinin yanısıra, bu çizgide geliştirilebilecek başka araştırmalar için bir temel, bir başlangıç noktası oluşturacağı düşünülmüştür.

In 2015, the first stage of O.M.A.’s Fondazione Prada in Milan was opened to the public. Led by O.M.A. founder, Rem Koolhaas, the project consists of a campus of re-purposed industrial buildings to house the art collection and associated cultural activities of the Italian fashion giant. Of all the extant buildings, the visual focus is on an ordinary five-storey structure, which has been covered entirely in gold leaf. While O.M.A. have employed gold leaf on a small number of earlier projects, there are also other contemporary parallels, including Mario Botta’s church in Seriate, located just fifty kilometres east of Milan. Completed in 2004, Botta’s church establishes a curious inversion of O.M.A.’s gold building: its interior is lined extensively in gilded timber slats.

While both buildings produce seductive atmospheres of reflected light and glowing golden colour, the interest of their association goes beyond their geographic proximity and their surface effects. Rather, this paper will examine how both Koolhaas and Botta seem to be compelled to justify their material choice. For example, Koolhaas has made pragmatic claims that real gold is cheaper than many other ‘traditional’ cladding materials. He thereby brings together longstanding themes in his work concerning luxury, and the conspicuous use of both cheap and expensive materials for visual and rhetorical impact. By contrast, Botta explains his interior based on the tradition of gilt timber picture frames, reinforcing a pervasive archaising rhetoric that surrounds his practice, and its insistence on historical memory.

Despite it being a mere fraction of a millimetre thick, the use of real gold therefore carries much semantic weight for both architects. By exploring Koolhaas and Botta’s representations of the two projects within the broader context of their work, this paper examines what is at stake in their respective use of gold, and will show how both projects rely on the material’s authenticity for meaning and rhetorical power.

Nicola Navone e Matteo Iannello, lezione aperta: Pedagogia e territorio. L’architettura delle scuole nel Cantone Ticino 1945-1980. Architettura ad Alghero. Università degli Studi di Sassari, Dipartimento di Architettura, Design e Urbanistica. Complesso Santa Chiara, Alghero 15 novembre 2021, ore 10:00.

Introduce Lino Cabras, Università degli Studi di Sassari.
Interviene Laura Puja, Università degli Studi di Sassari.

www.ticino4580.ch

Lezione dell'Architetto Mario Botta, organizzata e introdotta da Alessandra Coppa e Laura Giacomini,  evento di MantovArchitettura, Politecnico di Milano-Polo territoriale di Mantova.

Musei e spazi per l’arte
La lezione di Mario Botta affronta il tema del museo contemporaneo attraverso l’analisi dei suoi progetti a partire da questa riflessione: la fortuna critica che ha portato a numerosissime edificazioni di musei nella seconda metà del XX secolo è forse direttamente proporzionale alla perdita di valori che devono registrare le stesse comunità che le hanno promosse. Una società forte non dovrebbe avere bisogno di appositi “contenitori” per testimonianze o valori spesso smarriti e riservare loro un’attenzione staccata dalla vita e dagli impegni presenti nella quotidianità. Certo i musei nel mondo si sono trasformati e, dai polverosi palazzi “alla Schinkel” ottocenteschi, sono diventati nuovi luoghi di incontro, talvolta anche di semplice intrattenimento, per soddisfare un sempre più diffuso tempo libero. E’ all’interno di tali contraddizioni che l’architetto è chiamato a interpretare queste nuove, ibride istituzioni.

Museums and spaces for art
Mario Botta’s lesson deals with the theme of the contemporary museum through the analysis of his projects starting from this reflection: the critical fortune that led to very numerous museum edifications in the second half of the twentieth century is perhaps directly proportional to the loss of values that the same communities that promoted them must record. A strong society should not need special containers for testimonies or values that are often lost and give them an attention detached from life and from the commitments present in everyday life. Surely, museums around the world have transformed and, from the dusty nineteenth-century Schinkel-style palaces, they have become new meeting places, sometimes even for simple entertainment, to satisfy an increasingly widespread free time. It is whithin these contradictions that the architect is called to interpret these new, hybrid institutions.

Iniziato come una personale esigenza di dar forma simbolica al mondo interiore umano da parte dell’artista Niki de Saint Phalle, con la collaborazione del compagno Jean Tinguely; realizzato grazie alla concessione del terreno da parte della famiglia Caracciolo e senza permessi edilizi, quale una sorprendente performance d’autore nella campagna maremmana, il Giardino dei Tarocchi di Capalbio si rivela un interessante caso di studio sul rapporto tra arte contemporanea e paesaggio. Un ulteriore motivo di attenzione dal punto di vista architettonico e l’intervento di Mario Botta a concludere i lavori con un ingresso sobrio, ma d’impatto e valenza semantica forte. L’articolo si propone di descrivere la genesi e gli esiti dell’opera, con brevi cenni ai problemi di conservazione, anche attraverso il contributo delle interviste direttamente fatte dagli autori a Niki de Saint Phalle e Mario Botta. In the Garden of Tarots, conceived by Niki de Saint-Phall with the contributions of Jean Tingue...