Interactions in architecture between Switzerland and Italy. Lugano as crossroads and laboratory (1943 - 1960)

Lugano, in these events, played the role of both a crossroads and a laboratory: a crossroads in that it welcomed in the first instance a large part of the architects and engineers who had found refuge in Switzerland during the war; a laboratory because, starting especially after the Second World War, it was the place where an architecture with a European outlook was developed (and put to the test), permeated by Italian culture and at the same time by the climate beyond the Alps. Through the reconstruction of the network of relations established by the protagonists of that season (i.e. considered in its broadest extension, including, in addition to architects, engineers, clients, artists and intellectuals), and the analysis of the other vectors of this exchange (such as the circulation of volumes and periodicals on both sides of the Atlantic; the organisation of exhibitions, participation in conventions, study days, seminars, public conferences; participation in radio and television broadcasts, etc.) and the analysis of the works realised in the Lugano district, that are the result, the project intends to reconstruct a page of our history (not only architectural) that has not yet been sufficiently investigated.

The research, financed by the Fondazione Ferdinando and Laura Pica-Alfieri, is part of the project “Architecture between Switzerland and Italy: exchanges and interactions, 1943-1960”, promoted by the Archivio del Moderno, of which it is the first act.