Ticino Modernism: The University of Lugano

by Kenneth Frampton, Richard Ingersoll

The new campus for the University of Italian Switzerland (USI) in Lugano is an excellent example of how to obtain overall harmony while indulging multiple authors. An acknowledged master of Ticino Modernism, Aurelio Galfetti, and his associate for this project, Jachen Konz, designed the master plan and one of the campus' five buildings, while the other four were designed by teams of architects under 40, chosen through a competition. The process was short - architects were established in 1998 and the campus was completed in 2002. Each building possesses its own character and style, while the assemblage adheres to the taste of the master planner, who influenced each project as the general coordinator of works.
USI's master plan was liberally based on a 1997 study by architect Peter Zumthor and his students at the Academia that proposed five buildings differentiated by function, in contrast to the conventional practice of assigning buildings by academic departments. The only exception is the theological school, which occupies its own structure as an independent entity. The guiding strategy was to create unity through landscaping and sense of accessibility through architectural transparency.

107 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2004

About the author

Kenneth Frampton is a British architect, critic, historian and the Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York.

Frampton studied architecture at Guildford School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London. Subsequently he worked in Israel, with Middlesex County Council and Douglas Stephen and Partners (1961–66), during which time he was also a visiting tutor at the Royal College of Art (1961–64), tutor at the Architectural Association (1961–63) and Technical Editor of the journal Architectural Design (AD) (1962–65).
Frampton has also taught at Princeton University (1966–71) and the Bartlett School of Architecture, London, (1980). He has been a member of the faculty at Columbia University since 1972, and that same year he became a fellow of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York -- (whose members also included Peter Eisenman, Manfredo Tafuri and Rem Koolhaas) -- and a co-founding editor of its magazine Oppositions.
Frampton is a permanent resident of the USA.
Frampton is well known for his writing on twentieth-century architecture. His books include Modern Architecture: A Critical History (1980; revised 1985, 1992 and 2007) and Studies in Tectonic Culture (1995). Frampton achieved great prominence (and influence) in architectural education with his essay "Towards a Critical Regionalism" (1983) — though the term had already been coined by Alexander Tzonis and Liliane Lefaivre. Also, Frampton's essay was included in a book The Anti-Aesthetic. Essays on Postmodern Culture, edited by Hal Foster, though Frampton is critical of postmodernism. Frampton's own position attempts to defend a version of modernism that looks to either critical regionalism or a 'momentary' understanding of the autonomy of architectural practice in terms of its own concerns with form and tectonics which cannot be reduced to economics (whilst conversely retaining a Leftist viewpoint regarding the social responsibility of architecture).
In 2002 a collection of Frampton's writings over a period of 35 years was collated and published under the title Labour, Work and Architecture.