The world's most popular International Trade Fair of Ceramics for Architecture and Bathroom Furnishings, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

Cersaie International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishings
www.cersaie.com
Piazza Costituzione 5, 40128 Bologna (Italy)
From Tuesday October 2nd 2007 thru Saturday October 6th 2007

Cersaie is one of the best venues in the world for viewing new products and making contacts in manufacturing, architecture and design. After Antonio Citterio, this year's Architectural Guest Star is Ticino architect Mario Botta, who will be holding a conference on the subject of "Architecture and Memory", moderated by Aldo Colonetti, at 10:30 on October 4, 2007.

About Mario Botta
Born in Mendrisio, Switzerland in 1943, Botta trained as a technical draftsman before he studied at the Liceo Artistico in Milan. From 1965 to 1969 he studied at the Istituto Universitario di Architecttura in Venice. During this same period he worked as an assistant to Le Corbusier and, then, to Louis I. Kahn. He opened his own practice in Lugano, Switzerland in 1970.

Essentially Modernist in approach, Mario Botta has been strongly influenced by both Carlo Scarpa and Louis Kahn. Although his later works increasingly accept existing forms and styles as the starting point of design, Botta still adheres to a philosophy of historical determinism in which architecture acts as a mirror of its times.

Botta's works characteristically show respect for topographical conditions and regional sensibilities and his designs generally emphasize craftsmanship and geometric order. Because he attempts to reconcile traditional architectural symbolism with the aesthetic rules of the Modern Movement, Botta is often identified with the Italian neo-rationalist group, the Tendenaz.

Botta built exclusively in Switzerland during his early career, gaining international acclaim for such buildings as the Capuchin convent in Lugano, the Craft Centre in Balerna and the Administration Building for the Staatsbank in Fribourg.

Since the second half of the 1970s, his houses have become more classical in plan and elevation, and in the 1980's he has secured international commissions such as the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, California
References:

Dennis Sharp. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture.
New York: Quatro Publishing, 1991. ISBN 0-8230-2539-X. NA40.I45. p27.

Robert A. M. Stern. Modern Classicism. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1988. ISBN 0-8478-0848-3. NA682.C55. p126.

Mario Botta
Via Ciani 16, CH 6904 Lugano, Switzerland
Phone: 091.972.86.25
Fax: 091.970.14.54
email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Illustrious guests will also include Toyo Ito, who came up with the image for the Cersaie 2007 poster. His graphics underline the grid concept: "I get the feeling that in this century grids will melt, deform and be transformed like natural topographies," says the Japanese architect. "In other words, architecture is becoming more and more like a natural system."

Toyo Ito - Cersaie 2007
“Grids have ruled space throughout the 20th century”
‘Toyo Ito’ (Architect and Designer).

About Toyo Ito
Cities all over the world have been covered by homogeneous grids.
I have a feeling that in this century, grids will melt, become distorted and transform like natural topographies. In other words, architecture is becoming closer to natural systems.

Toyo Ito was born in 1941. After graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1965, he worked for the Metabolist architect Kiyonori Kikutake until 1969. In 1971 he opened his own office, Urban Robot (URBOT), which was renamed Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects in 1979.

An influential though far from prolific architect, Ito believed that architecture had become encumbered with irrelevant symbolism. In the ‘70s, he sought to erase conventional meaning from his works through minimalist tactics, which is represented in White U (1976) and Silver Hut (1984), inspired by early modernist movements such as Purism and the straightforward use of easily available industrial materials. He developed an aesthetic of lightweight, permeable membranes composed of fabrics, perforated aluminum panels and expanded metal sheets, which he believed was most suited to an increasingly mobile and informal urban lifestyle and designed the projects such as Tower of Winds (1986), Restaurant Nomad (1986) and Yatsushiro Municipal Museum (1991).

Toyo Ito’s main work includes both public and private works. Currently, he is working at various projects in Japan and overseas. Sendai Mediatheque built in 2001 in Sendai, Japan, Ito used a unique structure to compose fluid spaces with hardly any walls. It was received as a sensational project and gave great influence to young architects worldwide. Designing two temporary pavilions in 2002, the Brugge Pavilion in Belgium and the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2002 in London, he met the challenge to unify surface and structure. In going beyond the purity of modernism, Toyo Ito is trying to find ways for an architecture of the 21st century: an architecture which reflects nature, emerging from autopoietic processes and organic geometries, creating joyful and pleasant spaces filled with life.

He is currently working on many projects throughout the world, including the Hôpital Cognacq-Jay in Paris, Relaxation Park in Torrevieja, Extension at the Fira de Barcelona, and Montjuic-2 in Barcelona.

In 2006, Ito was awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects Royal Gold Medal.

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