First Edition 2007-2008
Mario Botta
Switzerland
President
Born in Mendrisio, Ticino, on April 1, 1943. After an apprenticeship in Lugano, he first attends the Art College in Milan and then studies at the University Institute of Architecture in Venice. Directed by Carlo Scarpa and Giuseppe Mazzariol he receives his professional degree in 1969. During his time in Venice he has the opportunity to meet and work for Le Corbusier and Louis I. Kahn.
His professional activity begins in 1970 in Lugano. He builds his first single-family houses in Canton Ticino and subsequently all over the world. He has always committed himself in an intense architectural research and since 1996 he is involved as creator and founder of the new academy of architecture in Mendrisio, Ticino where he is Professor and held the directorship in 2002/2003.
His work has achieved international renown and important awards (Merit Award for Excellence in Design by the AIA for the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, the IAA Annual Prix 2005, International Academy of Architecture, Sofia, Bulgaria, for the Kyobo Tower in Seoul, the International Architecture Award of the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the “European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage Europa Nostra”, for the restructuring of the Theatre alla Scala in Milan, and been presented in many exhibitions.
Among his realisations must be remembered the theatre and cultural centre in Chambéry, the art gallery Watari-um in Tokyo, the library in Villeurbanne, the SFMOMA museum of modern art in San Francisco, the cathedral in Evry, the museum Jean Tinguely in Basel, the Cymbalista synagogue and Jewish heritage centre in Tel Aviv, the municipal library in Dortmund, the Friedrich Dürrenmatt centre in Neuchâtel, the MART museum of modern and contemporary art in Rovereto, the Kyobo tower in Seoul, the office building Tata CS in New Delhi and Hyderabad, the Fondation Bodmer museum in Cologny, the church and pastoral centre Pope John XXIII in Seriate, the public library in Bergamo and the restoration of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the new casinò in Campione d’Italia, the church Santo Volto in Turin and the wellness centre in Arosa.
Among the works must be counted the office and residential complex in Treviso, the university library in Trento, the Bechtler art museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Tsinghua University art gallery and museum in Beijing, the Leeum offices in Seoul, the underground stations in Naples, the new auditorium in Rimini, the museum of architecture in Mendrisio.