Architect · Switzerland · Born 1943
Mario Botta Biography, Buildings and Best Books
Swiss architect (born 1943) known for geometric buildings in brick and stone, from the houses of Ticino to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the church of Mogno.
Photo: Niccolò Caranti, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Biography
Mario Botta (born 1943) is a Swiss architect from Ticino whose strong geometric volumes, symmetrical facades and banded brick and stone have made his work instantly recognisable. Beginning with single-family houses in the Ticino landscape, he went on to design museums, churches, theatres and banks across Europe, Asia and the United States, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Évry Cathedral and the church of San Giovanni Battista in Mogno.
Mendrisio, Milan and Venice
Botta was born in Mendrisio in 1943 and left school at fifteen to apprentice in an architecture office in Lugano, where he designed his first building, a parish house in Genestrerio, while still a teenager. He studied at the art school in Milan and then at the IUAV in Venice, graduating in 1969 under Carlo Scarpa and Giuseppe Mazzariol. In Venice he also worked briefly for Le Corbusier and met Louis Kahn.
The houses of Ticino
Botta opened his office in Lugano in 1970 and became a leading figure of the so-called Ticino School. His house in Riva San Vitale (1973), a concrete-block tower entered by a bridge from the hillside, and the Casa Rotonda in Stabio (1982) turned the single-family house into a compact geometric object that frames the landscape.
Churches, museums and cities
From the 1980s Botta built at a much larger scale: the cultural centre in Chambéry, the Évry Cathedral near Paris (1995), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1995), with its striped oculus, the Tinguely Museum in Basel (1996) and the MART in Rovereto (2002). His sacred buildings, including the chapel on Monte Tamaro and the church of San Giovanni Battista in Mogno (1996), rebuilt after an avalanche, are among his most admired works.
Teaching and later work
In 1996 Botta was a founder of the Accademia di architettura in Mendrisio, now one of Switzerland’s leading schools. His later works include the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul (2004), the renovation of La Scala in Milan (2004), the Tschuggen Bergoase spa in Arosa and the Fiore di pietra restaurant on Monte Generoso (2017).
Mario Botta: Architectural Poetics
Irena Sakellaridou’s study explains the principles behind Botta’s houses, churches and museums, with photographs and drawings across 240 pages.
View on Amazon
Timeline
- 1943Born on 1 April in Mendrisio, Ticino.
- 1969Graduates from the IUAV in Venice.
- 1970Opens his office in Lugano.
- 1973Completes the house in Riva San Vitale.
- 1982Completes the Casa Rotonda in Stabio.
- 1995Completes SFMOMA in San Francisco and Évry Cathedral in France.
- 1996Completes the church of Mogno and the Tinguely Museum; co-founds the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture.
- 2002Completes the MART in Rovereto.
- 2004Completes the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art and the renovation of La Scala.
- 2017Completes Fiore di pietra on Monte Generoso.
Best Books on Mario Botta
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Mario Botta known for?
Mario Botta is known for strong geometric buildings in brick and stone, with symmetrical facades and cylindrical or cubic volumes, from his houses in Ticino to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Évry Cathedral and the church of Mogno.
What are Mario Botta’s most famous buildings?
His best-known buildings include the house in Riva San Vitale, the Casa Rotonda in Stabio, SFMOMA, Évry Cathedral, the church of San Giovanni Battista in Mogno, the Santa Maria degli Angeli chapel on Monte Tamaro and the MART in Rovereto.
What is the best book on Mario Botta?
Mario Botta: Architectural Poetics (Thames & Hudson) is a good overview of his work. Emilio Pizzi’s The Complete Works is the most detailed record of his early buildings.
What is Mario Botta’s architectural style?
Botta is associated with the Ticino School and with a rational, monumental architecture of pure geometric forms, banded brick and stone, deep openings and carefully controlled natural light.
Where can I see Mario Botta’s architecture?
In Ticino you can visit the church of Mogno, the Monte Tamaro chapel and Fiore di pietra on Monte Generoso. Elsewhere, SFMOMA in San Francisco, the Tinguely Museum in Basel, the MART in Rovereto and Évry Cathedral are open to the public.
