His career began in Lugano in 1970. Mario Botta was born in Medrisio in 1943 and, after training as a draughtsman in Lugano, attended art school in Milan and then studied at the Instituto Universitario d'Architettura in Venice, where he met Le Corbusier and Louis I. Kahn, with whom he later worked. In 1970 he opened his own office in Lugano and lectured at architecture schools in Europe, Asia, North and South America. He was a visiting professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and at the Yale School of Architecture in New Haven, USA. He became a titular professor of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology and a member of the Swiss Federal Art Commission. He has received numerous international awards and honorary doctorates from various universities. More recently, he has been involved in the creation of a university in Italian-speaking Switzerland and initiated a new Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio. His career as an architect began with the construction of single-family homes in Ticino, followed later by schools, banks, administrative buildings, libraries, museums and sacred buildings – and a jewel among them: the Garnet Chapel on the Penken.
As a counterpoint to nature, Botta places an oversized crystal in the shape of a rhombic dodecahedron on a rocky outcrop east of the Penkenjoch reservoir. Especially in the mountains, perception is heightened, according to Mario Botta – and a piece of pure geometry like this chapel helps us to better read nature, the landscape, the sky and the atmosphere. A monument imbued with the passion of the garnet digger, asserting itself in the grandiose nature, yet showing it respect, sign of faith, place of contemplation, reflection and gratitude.
Mario Botta's work more than meets the requirements.