Architectural Construction in Ticino, 1939–1996. Materiality and Tectonics

The exhibition “Architectural Construction in Ticino, 1939–1996. Materiality and Tectonics”, curated by Franz Graf with Britta Buzzi, Carlo Dusi, Alessandro Bonizzoni and Sebastiano Verga, offers a reinterpretation of over fifty years of Ticino architecture through one hundred buildings selected for their significance from a constructional point of view. Documented through drawings, models, images and archival documents, the buildings are examined in terms of their physicality, in which materials, techniques and structural systems become tools for understanding the tectonics and poetics of the architectural works.

The exhibition project stems from two decades of research conducted by the Construction and Technology Area of USI Academy of Architecture. Analyzing and redrawing the buildings, the students gradually created an open catalogue of "modern" buildings of Ticino, highlighting their structural value and educational potential.

The exhibition highlights in particular twelve buildings, each accompanied by a publication featuring critical texts, documentary material and dedicated scholarly contributions. The exhibition also includes a selection of models, reports from Radiotelevisione della Svizzera Italiana (RSI) and a photographic series by Roberto Conte in 2025.