Guest Lecture: Architecture For The Pleasure Of Reason – Martino Pedrozzi

Martino Pedrozzi, born in Zurich in 1971, lived in Perú from 1973 to 1975. He graduated at EPFL in 1996 and worked in the office of Oscar Niemeyer in 1999. He runs an architectural practice in Mendrisio (www.pedrozzi.com).

About himself:
“With regard to architecture, I like confronting myself with different themes, dimensions and contexts, ranging from minimal interventions in the Alps to challenging urban competitions. Some projects have been awarded prizes (New Alpine Architecture, Die Besten, SIA), some appeared in publications (JA, Werk, Architecture Today, Domus) or have been presented in lectures in Switzerland and abroad.

I am passionate about teaching: since 2003 I direct WISH, the Summer School Programme of the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture (Accademia di architettura, Universita della Svizzera Italiana), where, since 2016, I am invited as a design studio visiting professor. To me architecture is above all a thinking opportunity, before any other purpose, which explains the title of the lecture”.

Recompositions in Sceru, Malvaglia Valley, Switzerland
[…] it was a mass of stone, which any unknowing observer would have imagined was a heap of stone cast up by the permafrost. Two assistants, who removed the stones in three hours of enthusiastic work, uncovered some kind of centre and then a rectangular shape, eventually revealing the foundations of a farmhouse. Filled up with stones, they had taken on the shape of a grave. The picture which Loos supplies for his definition of architecture (“Someone was buried here, That is architecture.”) focuses on the work of both assistants: here on the Sceru Alp they have buried a house. Let us imagine that these two continue tirelessly piling up stones to form graves which tell us about houses, barns and roads. That would be a beautiful way of confirming the rural exodus, wouldn’t it? (from “New alpine architecture, Architecture prize 2006”)

Recompositions in Giumello, Malvaglia Valley, Switzerland
The previous paragraph comes from the catalogue of a 2006 collective exhibition where Martino Pedrozzi’s first recomposition in Sceru was exposed. It ends wishing that the two assistants would continue piling stones in Sceru. After ten years not only all Sceru ruins were recomposed, but a second alp was completed: Giumello. Friends, relatives, colleagues, students joined the two first assistants and with the same enthusiasm and with generosity they helped theme on this never ending gesture.

House in Sonvico, Ligaino, Switzerland
The one floor house leans on a slope and gets horizontality through two hollow pillars where secondary functions are placed.

House in Mendrisio, Ligaino, Switzerland
The house, located just outside the Mendrisio historic centre where once began the fields, has been absorbed over the years by the urban extension. However, its autonomy originally characterized by the agricultural context has paradoxically increased. After the creation of a built front along a recently realized road, the dwelling has found itself protagonist of a well defined space between the historical town edge and the new urban front. (with Victoria Diaz Saravia, facade graphic consultant: Sidi Vanetti)

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Recompositions in Sceru, Malvaglia Valley, Switzerland | Photo © Pino Brioschi