In the picture from left to right: Jean-Pierre Candeloro, Franco Gervasoni, Amos Polti, Andrea Bassi, Silvia Barrera, Giovanni Merlini, Elena Fontana, Samuele Cavadini
What happens to an architecture once its designer hands over the keys to those who will inhabit it? And, taking a step back, how can designers translate values such as dialogue and interaction between people into architecture to facilitate them when they take possession of the building?
The round table I primi anni del Campus SUPSI di Mendrisio. Dal progetto architettonico alla ‘Menzione SIA Architettura e ingegneria’ (The first years of the SUPSI Campus in Mendrisio. From the architectural project to the ‘Mention SIA Architecture and Engineering’) was an opportunity to take stock of the building that will house the Department of environment constructions and design SUPSI from 2021 in the presence of SIA co-presidents Silvia Barrera and Elena Fontana and SUPSI president Giovanni Merlini, with the participation of the mayor of Mendrisio Samuele Cavadini, architect Andrea Bassi and engineer Amos Polti, the director general of SUPSI Franco Gervasoni and the Department director Jean-Pierre Candeloro, and with the moderation of Stefano Zerbi, head of the SUPSI Bachelor of Arts in Architecture.
The process involved and still involves various actors, from the choice of the site that would host the building to the framing of the urban development of the station area and the entire City of Mendrisio, to the establishment of a pole of excellence in construction together with the Academy of Architecture.
The spatial fluidity that facilitates relations and exchanges between the building’s occupants, as well as collaboration and respect for professionalism, is one of the themes that have been ‘translated’ into architecture by BCMA architectes of Geneva thanks to precise choices of transparent spaces, materials, and the monumental central ramp that rises from the ground floor to the third floor.
The Campus becomes, in a certain sense, a manifesto of some of the values of the Department of environment constructions and design that inhabits it. Whoever uses a building, then, moulds it, makes it his or her own: it is, in short, a question not only of space, but also of time, because one must be able to recognise oneself in the architecture that one frequents, which ‘grows’ like a living organism.
Architecture and Engineering Mention
The SIA Ticino recognised the quality and innovation of the building of the Department of environment constructions and design with the ‘Architecture and Engineering Mention’ at the SIA Award 2024 ceremony in February:
‘The jury is unanimous in considering the building worthy of multiple mentions, as it is representative of a coherent way of building, where the strength of the architectural language is the result of constructive logic. [...] The project becomes the expression of the best collaboration between architect and engineer. [...] The construction system also represents an innovation for the Ticino region. The production of the prefabricated elements is local and has allowed Ticino companies to compete with large-scale prefabrication. [...] SUPSI becomes the public building that redevelops an entire neighbourhood and activates the public transport hub, encouraging its use. [...] An architecture that creates spaces for socialising and stimulates the exchange of ideas, and which every day welcomes girls and boys in the midst of their professional development. [...] Entering the doors, one finds oneself with great surprise inside a cathedral whose sacredness speaks of the most courtly aspect of education. The central space imposes itself as a temple of knowledge’.