XXXI International Design Seminar Monte Carasso from the 6th of July to the 19th of July 2024
Founder: Luigi Snozzi
Lecturers: Mario Ferrari / Giacomo Guidotti / Stefano Moor
Coordinator: Michele Gaggetta
Invited: Gilles Delalex (MUOTO) www.studiomuoto.com
Guests: Bita Azimi-Khoï (CAB) / Patrick Bonzanigo / Mario Botta / Raffaele Cavadini / Cristina Gonzalo Nogués (GNWA) / Philippe Meier / Nicola Navone
Introduction and project theme
The International Design Seminar Monte Carasso is an integral part of the planning process initiated by Luigi Snozzi in 1979 for the municipality of Monte Carasso, now a district of Bellinzona.
While in the past the course participants have investigated topics of interest for the development of Monte Carasso, since 2013 the seminar has been dealing with a broader territory, tackling a highly topical issue: the aggregation of the municipalities of the Bellinzona region, which took place in 2017. The objective is to raise public and political awareness in order to promote a territorial reorganisation which is attentive to the entirety of the region and at the same time respects individual specificities, so that aggregation does not become a mere political-administrative act. It is attended 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 proposing a masterplan in 2013 and stating the principles on which it is based, from year to year the Seminar investigates specific strategic areas of the agglomeration, 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 a 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 fullness 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 2023, 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, the planning of one of the current interventions for the renaturation of the Ticino river, and the connection of the neighbourhoods on the right bank with the river park.
The 2024 edition of the Seminar confirms the desire to continue reflection on the urban development of the new Bellinzona. This year, however, the proposed theme will take on a more architectural scale, with the aim of inaugurating a series of 'design experiments' aimed at verifying the urban development hypotheses proposed by the master plan drawn up since the 2013 edition. In this sense, the proposed theme takes advantage of the future construction of the new Tilo line stop in Piazza Indipendenza to reorganise the still unresolved spaces of Piazzale Cervia, the car park behind the civic building and Piazza Governo. The redevelopment of these areas will be supported by the inclusion, in addition to residential and commercial spaces, of a modern accommodation facility consisting of a hotel and an adjoining conference centre. The main urban challenges will be to redefine the relationship between the inside and the outside of Bellinzona's historic walls, which has clearly remained unresolved.
The Seminar will have the character of a design workshop and will be supervised by lecturers with the contribution of architects and external experts. Over the years, architects of international stature have intervened 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, Bernard Quirot, Andrea Bassi, historian Alessandro Fonti and photographers Gabriele Basilico and Luc Boegly.
This year, for the final public lecture, the Seminar has the honour of welcoming architect Gilles Delalex (MUOTO). The lecture will take place in the evening of Thursday the 18th of July 2024 and will be held outdoors in the evocative setting of the ancient Augustinian convent.
At the end of the Seminar, the teaching faculty with the help of guest speakers Mario Botta, Raffaele Cavadini and Gilles Delalex will discuss the projects developed by the participants in a final public critique.
