Mario Botta

MARIO BOTTA (Switzerland, 1943).
"Sketch for Bechtler Museum Charlotte", 2009.
Pencil on paper.
Signed and dated.
Measurements: 18 x 25 cm; 27 x 33 cm (frame).
Architect and designer, Mario Botta designed his first house at the age of sixteen, although it is not known if it was built. He studied at the Liceo Artistico in Milan and at the University Institute of Architecture in Venice, where his main teacher was Carlo Scarpa. His ideas were influenced by Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, with whom he had the opportunity to work during his stay in Venice. In 1970 he opened his own office in Lugano. Botta's style is strong and geometric, with symmetrical floor plans hollowed out to allow passage. His buildings combine heavy concrete or brick walls with lightweight steel and glass structures. His works are spread throughout Switzerland, although he is also the author of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1995). Since 1996 he has been teaching at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio at the University of Italian Switzerland. According to Botta a lamp must create an atmosphere; it must produce light and therefore cast shadows, because light is generated through contrast. But apart from the atmosphere, a lamp is also a common object, which must have a meaning apart from the simple condition of a piece of furniture. The lamp has to be beautiful even when it is turned off, it has to keep its charm, and it has to keep us company. Botta believes that it must be a visible artifact with a function, an image, and that is why he started designing lamps that are in his concept people. "Shogun" is a person, with a head, body and feet, as well as a navel, and its elements endow the space with a legible scale, just as a person does. Made in three models: standing, tabletop and wall-mounted, it expresses its own idea of light in the form of shadows cast on the walls. Two metal screens, rotating and adjustable, provide an infinite number of different ways to compose the shadows.