4 Questions to Camillo Botticini
In the history of architecture, which works and which architects have most strongly influenced your work?
There are so many. For example La Tourette, designed by Le Corbusier, because of the relationship between the place, the memory and the state of being contemporary. But also because of the illusory apathy in treatment the matter (beton brut) becoming instead so strong for the capability to be synthetic and narrative at the same time.
Do you consider any one of your projects as more important than the others? If so, why?
The last project, as always, is the achievement and the synthesis of the previous reflections, the work that marks the interior “state of art”, physically formalized or just drawn. Alps Villa, the house in the mountains that I completed the past year, represents in this sense my best-built architecture. This happened because I had an excellent customer and a great builder with whom to dialogue, and this is so rare.
Should the work of an architect be recognizable? Is your work recognizable as being yours?
I think so, but with some clarifications. During the years of my education, I looked at the work of architects like Tadao Ando or Richard Meier because they seemed to produce architectures too much characterized by a stylistic homogeneity. The form is the result of a process where the compositive principles sediment in forms and project modalities, connected one each other also because of architectural themes and different places, except for architects, paraphrasing Mies, “change style every Monday morning”. The objective that I pursue is to summarize the different reasons of a project, through the site and the history of a place and the specific content of an architecture. These elements don’t always produce homogeneous effects.
How important is the practice in the training of an architect? What type of professional studio would you suggest as the first work experience for a recent graduate?
I think that practice is crucial. Architecture requests a strong and continuous dedication. Practice is the way theoretical reflections reveal themselves. Without a continuous and real experimentation the ability to verify our intentions is lost. In this sense, I think the condition of the Italian University is tragic. It is not good in creating a correspondence between architectural design professors and who demonstrated to be able to make great quality architectures. I suggest to young architects to make experience collaborating in a study which is good in working on the projects and which can involve young people in the development of the project. They can choose their teachers!
There are so many. For example La Tourette, designed by Le Corbusier, because of the relationship between the place, the memory and the state of being contemporary. But also because of the illusory apathy in treatment the matter (beton brut) becoming instead so strong for the capability to be synthetic and narrative at the same time.
Do you consider any one of your projects as more important than the others? If so, why?
The last project, as always, is the achievement and the synthesis of the previous reflections, the work that marks the interior “state of art”, physically formalized or just drawn. Alps Villa, the house in the mountains that I completed the past year, represents in this sense my best-built architecture. This happened because I had an excellent customer and a great builder with whom to dialogue, and this is so rare.
Should the work of an architect be recognizable? Is your work recognizable as being yours?
I think so, but with some clarifications. During the years of my education, I looked at the work of architects like Tadao Ando or Richard Meier because they seemed to produce architectures too much characterized by a stylistic homogeneity. The form is the result of a process where the compositive principles sediment in forms and project modalities, connected one each other also because of architectural themes and different places, except for architects, paraphrasing Mies, “change style every Monday morning”. The objective that I pursue is to summarize the different reasons of a project, through the site and the history of a place and the specific content of an architecture. These elements don’t always produce homogeneous effects.
How important is the practice in the training of an architect? What type of professional studio would you suggest as the first work experience for a recent graduate?
I think that practice is crucial. Architecture requests a strong and continuous dedication. Practice is the way theoretical reflections reveal themselves. Without a continuous and real experimentation the ability to verify our intentions is lost. In this sense, I think the condition of the Italian University is tragic. It is not good in creating a correspondence between architectural design professors and who demonstrated to be able to make great quality architectures. I suggest to young architects to make experience collaborating in a study which is good in working on the projects and which can involve young people in the development of the project. They can choose their teachers!
Camillo Botticini Italian architect
Camillo Botticini (Brescia, 1965) is an Italian architect. He graduated in architecture at Milan Polytechnic University in 1990, under professor Sergio Crotti with whom he collaborated as an assistant for ten years. In 2003 he obtained the PhD at Milan Polytechnic University and then became an adjunct professor. In 1993, Camillo opened his own private studio in Brescia. Between 2008 and 2014 he founded and directed ABDA Architetti with Giulia De Appolonia. He has been selected for several awards, among the Mies van der Rohe Awards 2007, and finalist for the *Medaglia d’Oro dell’Architettura Italiana* in 2015.
Texts by Camillo Botticini