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MARIO BOTTA
architect
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Bologna, Cersaie 2007
“The past as a friend”: this is the significant phrase, from Louis I. Kahn, one of Botta’s mentors, that provided the starting point for his conference address, Mario Botta: Architecture and Memory, in 2007 at Cersaie no. 25.  He continued:  “Rather than something to be remembered with nostalgia, the past provides roots, structure and an identity that is capable of conveying values, the framework for all human activity,”. In this context, Botta believes that memory is “the condition of the modern in architecture, if we see architecture not merely as an expression of the present but as the result of a dialogue with our roots and an integral part of our vision”.
A concept that Botta has been expressing for some time: "I believe that today creating architecture is a way of resisting the loss of identity, of resisting the trivialisation and cultural flattening out brought about by the consumerism so rife in modern society. In this sense, architecture is more an ethical than an aesthetic issue." [Stuart Wrede, Mario Botta, exhibition catalogue, p. 67, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1986]
 “Rather than an object simply placed within a context, architecture should be seen as an entity that is rooted in a place that is always unique. For this reason the setting is an integral part of the design and never a mere accessory.”
 “Human beings do not only have technical and functional needs: there are symbolic and metaphorical aspects of history that are perhaps more important than the ease with which we can obtain a service. In the contest between the global and the local the latter undoubtedly wins out, but this should not make us fall prey to nostalgia, since memory ensures that we are not alone.” [source: www.italiatiles.it]
 

Milan, Sole24ore
It is quite natural for Botta to be asked frequently to explain how the statements he makes apply to the context of a specific project, as does for example, Alessandra Coppa on the subject of the redevelopment of the ex-Campari site.

How do you relate your design to the memory of the place?
In urban societies such as Sesto, through which a swathe has can been cut by globalisation and the late 20th Century flight from industrialisation, the quest for their own identity inevitably passes by way of the sense of belonging to their own territory, of recognising their own past. (...) For Sesto, it was important to retain the outline of the old factory and to restore its value as a monument, because architecture does not manifest its expressive value by means of the functions it is required to perform or the aesthetic code to which it refers, but rather it achieves this by means of the spatial and emotional relationships it is able to create with its own context. (...) Where the old, by then obsolete Campari factory lay abandoned, an entirely new complex has been designed (...) the entire complex, with such a long history behind it, has now become part of a new urban fabric.  It sends a powerful signal, just as the old Campari factory has, in becoming the new Campari head offices. Indeed the façades are extremely iconic.
There are two façades, one consisting of the part below the old Campari building, that above becomes a great bridge linking the offices and the L-shaped building on Via Sacchetti which contains most of the offices.  I chose the cladding of terracotta tiles  for the façade, set at 45 degrees and sometimes installed flat for a brise soleil effect.  This terracotta cladding creates a new surface and image for the urban landscape. [Alessandra Coppa, Fabbrica Campari, interview with Mario Botta, 24 June 2009, source: www.archinfo.it]

Milan, Politecnico, Aula Rogers
For Botta, the importance of materials is not up for discussion...
“There are materials that do justice to the light, making it possible to survive, to vibrate, to signal the passage of the sun, to describe the arc of the seasons, by means of the physical properties that belong uniquely to each material. Materials are therefore, in themselves the instruments that allow the light to live. From this point of view, in architecture, all materials are “good”.  The concept of materials that are valuable and others that are less so does not exist.
However each material must have its own expressive power. Thinking, for example of Carlo Scarpa; he seems, of all the architects of the past, the one who knew best how to make every material speak for itself.
From this standpoint, material is “plurality”.  The multifaceted nature of materials is a source of wealth for contemporary architecture, at times too much, since it can degenerate into a market-led choice, no longer linked to design imperatives. The range of materials new technologies have provided is ever greater, offering amazing opportunities to restore a little feeling and joie de vivre to human existence.” [Mario Botta, Incontri Millennium Italcementi, Aula Rogers, Prima Facoltà di Architettura del Politecnico di Milano, 15 November 2002]