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Since designing his first house at age 16, Mario Botta has been a controversial and paradoxical figure. Christopher Kanal asks him whether his ethical architecture seeks to inspire modern society or retreat from it. "There are no aesthetics without ethics, there are no immoral aesthetics," Mario Botta tells me. The architect behind the recent Santo Volto Church views architecture as an almost spiritual duty. Like a baroque architect, he once said: "To build is a sacred act, an action that transforms a condition of nature into a condition of culture," Yet is Botta's striving for ethics and purity in architecture a reactionary stance from a national redoubt in Lugano or a personal crusade? Probably both. Botta's work has a real sense of paradox, making him one of the most original architectural voices of our time. He is also notoriously difficult to define. Crowned in his earlier career by Charles Jencks as a leading genius of 'postmodern classicism', Botta has since been described as a 'neorealist' and a 'fundamentalistic classicist'. A decade ago he declared war on post modernism and what he saw as its resultant 'global Disneyland architecture'. One of the few living architects to have worked with Le Corbusier, Botta's sense of the epic is reflected in his opinions. "I think architecture is a civil duty that relates to mankind, a social duty that concerns society and an ethical duty, as architecture can represent values related to the way we live," Botta tells me from his office in Lugano, the Alpine town that has inspired so much of his work since he opened his practice here in 1970. Separated by the Alps from the rest of Switzerland, Lugano is a suitably lofty base for Botta. SENSITIVE HISTORICAL DESIGN Much of his work has an awesome appreciation of history. You only have to visit the Church of San Giovanni Battista in the tiny mountain village of Mogno, with its walkway jutting into the mountains, to see this. "Architecture is the shape of history," he tells me. "Therefore it has to portray the expectations, hopes and contradictions of its own time. "Architecture is a discipline that gives an order to the space in our life, therefore it can give a structure to the organisation of the space," says Botta. "Heidegger once said that man can only live when he is able to orient himself in a space, that's why the buildings in our cities have to offer some reference points that enable man to know his own space. You feel more comfortable when you are able to control the space around you." Unsurprisingly, he tells me that he thinks the German philosopher would have made a great architect. Botta addresses his philosophical and spiritual questions using geometry, yet there is a hermetic defensiveness in his designs. He describes much of modern architecture as commercial, disposable and artificial. So, does he seek refuge from society by creating churches, offices and apartments that look like citadels?
"'Architecture is a discipline that gives an order to the space in our life,' says Botta."
"The main idea of protection is part of architecture," he says. "Home remains in our subconscious as our shelter, our protection and these values are very important in a discipline like architecture." Does he, like Heidegger, see the natural world as separated from our eksistent essence by an abyss? "I don't think we can talk about natural world. The natural world is already modified by man's work and is constantly changing." If anything, Botta's work seeks to improve the quality and appreciation of life. Indeed, the most important thing Botta learnt from Le Corbusier is that architecture can have a far-reaching influence on society. "There are good examples like the Masters of Rationalism and Le Corbusier, who aimed to improve the quality of life," he says. "Then, there are others who work with rubbish." It is not just Le Corbuisier who has had a profound influence on Botta. Between 1964 and 1969, Botta was at the Universitario di Architettura in Venice. During those years, through a combination of good luck and perseverance, he was able to make contact with three giants of the architectural world Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn and Carlo Scarpa, one of his teachers and his thesis professor. While Scarpa taught Botta the importance of a philosophical appreciation of material structure, Kahn, in particular, held a fascination for his reduction of architecture to the essentials. "He was the one who understood the limits of technological development and the need for going back to the origins," Botta explains, adding that "going back to the origins is in fact the strongest cultural element in a society that constantly focuses on the future."
"Botta's religious building designs address fundamental questions of man's relationship with the divine."
Another of Botta's most celebrated works is the chapel at Monte Tamaro which has a walkway reaching out from a bluff high above a valley. The walk along this projection towards the Ticino Mountains, high in the mist, is a profound experience that merges the supernatural with the natural. Is Botta religious? "I never talk about religion as it's all about spirituality for me," he says describing his building designs for all three monotheistic religions. "I have designed Christian churches, I have designed a synagogue in Tel Aviv and I am currently projecting a mosque." Botta's religious buildings have the wider purpose of drawing communities closer together. His Cymbalista Synagogue in Tel Aviv, completed in 1998, is used by both liberal and Orthodox Jews and contains two different places for worship. PUBLIC, YET PERSONAL Over the past decade, Botta has focused on creating major public buildings worldwide. Functional, rigorous and closely in tune with their surroundings, buildings like the monolithic Kyobo Tower in Seoul brutally assert their solidity. Interestingly Botta's renown for designing places of worship has made him a sought-after architect by big business. However, he passionately believes he can reconcile building both churches and casinos. "They both give people a sense of control of the world," he says.
Botta's first built work after graduation was a single-family house at Cadenazzo in Ticino, in 1971. His significant house projects include Ligornetto with Martin Boesch and Pregassona with Rudy Hunziker in the 1970s, and Morbio Superiore in the early 1980s. Many of his projects have been single-family houses, which hold a particular fascination for him. His early projects with their linear, asymmetrical structures evolved into more formal buildings. Houses might be 'mini architecture', but they have unique issues that go to the roots of design.