Introduction


In 1975 the exhibition Tendenzen, organized at the Federal Polytechnic of Zurich by Thomas Boga and Martin Steinmann, formulated the idea of a “school” of young Ticino-based architects.
The works of Mario Botta, Mario Campi, Aurelio Galfetti, Bruno Reichlin & Fabio Reinhart, Flora Ruchat-Roncati, Luigi Snozzi and Livio Vacchini became manifestos of a particularly fertile period of experiences, assuming the name Tendenza.
Halfway through the 1980s two professorships at the Zurich Polytechnic were assigned to Ticinese architects: Mario Campi and Flora Ruchat-Roncati. Assistant professors at the school in that period included Bruno Reichlin and Fabio Reinhart, who later became full professors at Swiss, European and American universities. As the years passed all the members of the movement became professors at the most prestigious architecture schools in Europe and the world: Yale School of Architecture, the Milan Polytechnic, Harvard University, Syracuse University, Rhode Island School of Design and the Gesamthochschule of Kassel.

In 1996 the Architecture Academy promoted by Mario Botta and directed by Aurelio Galfetti was opened in Mendrisio, Canton Ticino.

The main objective of the exhibition is to present both the works that have made Ticinese architects famous in their homeland, and the buildings that have since been commissioned elsewhere in Switzerland and abroad. The exhibition is an opportunity to educate people about the expressions of that movement, reinforcing its prestige on the international scene.
The exhibits on the works and the architects are supplemented by the contributions of contemporary architectural scholars (Kenneth Frampton, Jacques Gubler, Werner Oechslin and Roberto Masiero), explaining the critical success of the protagonists of this movement.