XXIX International Design Seminar Monte Carasso 9th – 22nd July 2022
For twenty-nine years, the Monte Carasso International Planning Seminar has been an integral part of the planning process initiated by Luigi Snozzi in 1979 for the municipality of the same name, now a district of Bellinzona. While in the past the participants have investigated topics of interest for the development of Monte Carasso, for the past nine editions the Seminar has been dealing with a broader territory, tackling a highly topical issue: the aggregation of the municipalities of Bellinzona, which took place in 2017. The target is to raise public and political awareness in order to promote a territorial reorganisation that is attentive to the whole and at the same time respects individual specificities, so that aggregation does not become a simple political-administrative act. It is hoped that the aggregation process of the new Bellinzona will invest sufficient economic, political and social resources in this region, in favour of a shared and aggregated territorial planning. A planning that knows how to (re)put the spatial issues proper to architecture at the centre of the debate. After having proposed a master plan in 2013 and having set out the principles on which it is based, from year to year the seminar explores specific strategic areas of the region, verifying and if necessary modifying the initial hypotheses: assuming the mountains, real ‘vertical parks’, as transversal limits of the city; recognising the river park as the central spine that structures, in its autonomy, the entire agglomeration; setting clear limits to the longitudinal development of the city to counteract the unlimited occupation of the valley; balancing voids and solids in the process of urban densification; introducing urban spaces oriented perpendicularly to the valley, to allow the city to experience also its transversal dimension and no longer only its longitudinal one. From 2014 to 2021, various themes were addressed with different public and private contents: the definition of the northern and southern gates of the city, the redevelopment of some neighbourhoods, the reorganisation of the city centre from Viale Stefano Franscini to Viale Giuseppe Motta, the redesigning of spaces along the railway axis, and the planning of one of the current interventions for the renaturation of the Ticino river. The 2022 edition of the Seminar confirms the desire to continue reflection on the urban development of the new Bellinzona. The territory taken into consideration for this XXIX edition is the industrial area close to the railway line between the Saleggi area of Bellinzona and the Giubiasco railway station. This area has developed around a number of important industries, which have in turn attracted numerous small workshops that contribute to determining its marked industrial character, albeit in a disorderly and chaotic manner. The changes expected in the redefinition of Bellinzona’s urban geography, as well as the processes of delocalisation of large production sites, underway more or less everywhere in Switzerland, are calling into question the presence of these industries in areas that have now become central to urban development. It will therefore be the task of the seminar to reflect on these issues, trying to redefine a new urban morphology capable of integrating the area’s productive vocation (maintaining valuable buildings and work activities in keeping with the new urban visions) with the ever-increasing presence of residences and with possible new public facilities such as a third cycle biomedicine centre in synergy with the new cantonal hospital planned for Saleggi, the Biomedical Centre (CRB) and the new regional and cross-border railway network (Tilo) under construction between Bellinzona and Giubiasco. The seminar will have the character of a design workshop and will be supervised by the lecturers with the contribution of architects and external experts. Over the years, architects of international standing have taken part such as Michele Arnaboldi, Raffaele Cavadini, Pierre-Alain Croset, Aurelio Galfetti, Mario Botta, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Livio Vacchini, Esteve Bonell, Gonçalo Byrne, Bernard Huet, Alvaro Siza, Roberto Masiero, Francesco Venezia, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Silvia Gmür, Henri Ciriani, Pierre Fauroux, Guillermo Vasquez Consuegra, Angelo Bucci, Vittorio Gregotti, Marco Ortalli, Manuel Aires Mateus, João Luis Carrilho da Graça, José María Sánchez García, Gloria Cabral (Gabinete de Arquitectura), José Ignacio Linazasoro, Jan and Pascale Richter, historian Alessandro Fonti and photographer Gabriele Basilico. This year, for the final public lecture, the Seminar has the honour of receiving the French architect Bernard Quirot. The lecture will take place in the evening of Thursday 21st July 2022 and will be held outdoors in the picturesque setting of the former Augustinian convent. At the end of the Seminar, the teaching staff with the help of invited guests Mario Botta, Raffaele Cavadini and Bernard Quirot will discuss the projects developed by the participants in a final public critique.
Public events programme Monday 11th July 2022, 5.30 p.m. Nicola Navone Bellinzona in the 1960s: projects for the city and the territory Tuesday 12th July 2022, 5.30 p.m. Patrick Bonzanigo Legal Structures as a Generating Element of Urban Design Reflections and Ideas for the Design Seminar Wednesday 13th July 2022, 5.30 p.m. Adrien Besson A unique place Friday 15th July 2022, 5.30 p.m. Stephan Buchhofer In between - separating and connecting Monday 18th July 2022, 5.30 p.m. Cédric Schärer AS FOUND - DOING WITH - A short reflection on the context Tuesday 19th July 2022, 6.00 p.m. Alberto Caruso The city of Aurelio Galfetti Thursday 21st July 2022, 9.30 p.m. Bernard Quirot The Structural Tradition of Architecture Friday 22nd July 2022, 10 a.m. Mario Botta / Raffaele Cavadini / Bernard Quirot Final project critique Entry Conditions Students attending an architecture school and graduating architects may apply.
Entries must be sent by Friday 1st July 2022 to ivan.guidotti@bellinzona.ch
Entry fee: CHF 450.-
Accommodation and refreshment
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