Mario Botta

On my numerous trips to Switzerland for work with World-Architects.com I've been fortunate enough to visit places like Peter Zumthor's Therme Vals, but one remote building I've yet to visit is Mario Botta's Chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli on Monte Tamaro. This book will have to suffice until I manage to ascend the Ticino mountain and see the prow-like stone building in person. Published on the occasion of an exhibition at Museo Cantonale d'Arte in 1994, the book is a beautiful document of Botta's architecture and the art of Enzo Cucchi, whose paintings fill the small circular chapel. Each contributor is given equal space in the book, be it in a joint interview, essays on each, or visual documentation of their contributions. The choice of paper appropriately reflects the varied content, with lightweight and heavyweight linens for text and drawings, and glossy pages for photographs of the building then nearing completion. The care put into the book shows that the publisher, museum, and client considered the chapel to be a significant work, although one that has been overshadowed by Therme Vals, which was also completed in 1996.… (mais)