The Architect's Atlas

The third volume of the “Quaderni” presents the reflections of the architect-professors who compose the Faculty Board of the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture-Università della Svizzera italiana. It is not, however, the customary exposition of their vision of the discipline and professional practice. The contributions embody such themes in varying degrees, but above all they present the cultural frame of reference that each architect believes to be the most significant in explaining his or her personality. The term “atlas” in the title should therefore be understood as the set of formative lessons, technological and historical curiosities, aesthetic explorations and intellectual orientations that form the expressive canon of each architect.

Contents

An atlas of atlases
Mare Collomb, Marco Della Torre

The atlas, or Adieu to the treatise
Bruno Pedretti

Legacy and discontinuity
Manuel Aires Mateus

Interstitial thinking
Walter Angonese

A life of encounters
Michele Arnabold

The search for happiness
Valentin Bearth

An architecture of things
Riccardo Blumer

Apropos: a few comments on ten questions
Martin Boesch

Encounters
Mario Botta

6 themes 6 projects
Burkhalter Sumi

Elements of a design language
Antonio Citterio

Small coming-of-age novel
Mare Collomb

How and why do we imagine?
Grafton Architects

Statement of poetics
Diébédo Francis Kéré

Fragments of an architectural discourse
Quintus Miller

The interdisciplinary rivers of the landscape
João Nunes

Towards an icastic autobiography
Valerio Olgiati

Six talking points
Jonathan Sergison

Biographies