Born in Mendrisio in 1943, after an apprenticeship in Lugano, he attended the Art School in Milan and continued his studies at the University Institute of Venice, where he graduated in 1969. During his time in Venice, he had the opportunity to meet and work for Le Corbusier and Louis I. Kahn. In 1970, he opened his own studio in Lugano and, since then, he has been involved in architectural design – his is the MOMA Museum in San Francisco – as well as in an intense teaching activity with conferences, seminars and courses at architecture schools in Europe, Asia, the United States and Latin America. In 1996, he was one of the founders of the Accademia di architettura in Mendrisio, where he still teaches and has served as director, and is president of the jury for the BSI Architectural Award. Since 2011, the Mario Botta Architetti studio has moved to Mendrisio, where he continues to actively work on projects on a national and international scale, also participating in prestigious competitions.
Mario Botta worked with my father, Bernardo Caprotti, on the Via Canova shopping centre in Florence, which also appears in an English brochure I had made in the early 2000s to illustrate the company’s history and progress. As with all Esselunga‘big shops’, the intention was to redevelop a suburban area (in this case Isolotto) by erecting a building of value, useful and pleasant to be in.
Mario Botta was at home in Monate, in the villa of my mother Giorgina Venosta and her husband Aldo Bassetti. When my grandmother Luisa Quintavalle died in 2009, she wrote an affectionate condolence card to my mother, with a sketch on the cover for the new Alpine church in Mogno, Switzerland, swept away by an avalanche in 1986.
Sources:
Villa San Valerio, Albiate, Villa San Valerio Archives, Esselunga Archives, Esselunga, English-language brochure illustrating the history and development of Esselunga from its origins to 2001.
Ibid., Giorgina Venosta Archives, Architects, Mario Botta, Condolence card from Maria and Mario Botta to Giorgina Venosta on the death of their mother Luisa Quintavalle, Mendrisio (CH), May 2009 (unpublished).
External Bibliography:
Website of Mario Botta Architects
MySwitzerland, Mogno – the Alpine church by Mario Botta.
G. CAPROTTI, Le Ossa dei Caprotti family. Una storia italiana, Milan, 2023.
