Gottardo Bank
L
ugano
,
S
witzerland
1982-1988
Project
1982 (competition project)-1984
Construction
1984-1988
Commissioned by
Gottardo Bank
Site
8'800 m²
Area
14'000 m²
Volume
114'000m³
“A bank and its city.In designing the new Banca del Gottardo offices in Lugano, my aim was also to give the town a new image. This wasn't because of the grandness of the site or its intended use. In fact, I think a bank, like a post office, a church or a theatre, is a part of a city which serves the community.Cities are places for exchanging, meeting, trading. A bank is part of this process. So I thought it would be appropriate to use architecture to create an institution which recent trends have tended to see merely as a collection of administrative units, unwilling or unable to make their mark on the urban context. In recent decades, in fact, many bank buildings have used a neutral, international design on generally tried and accepted lines. Local circumstances, the historical and geographical context, and the particular characteristics of the site itself were often ignored. My design for the Banca del Gottardo's new offices in Lugano tries to take the opposite approach, by using the existing urban setting as the starting point for the design of the building. The façades on the Viale are 'complete' images, masks of stone, new faces, urban figures in the context of the city, like the palaces of old. Every building is a part of the city which it is in, something new which enriches the variety and complexity of urban life. I hope the new bank offices can enter into a dialogue with the city and become part of the city and renew its appearance.”
Mario Botta
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