VACCHINI’S DOUBLE

The lecture will be held in english

While centering on the project for the Nancy school built in 1995, Vacchini’s Double presents his work through the lens of the cultural critique that each of his projects operates. The lecture brings into question a fundamental character of his work: the duality – understood as a key instrument in constructing the absoluteness of the architectural form; and to explore an alternative to composition as paradigm. The Double also recalls a biographical note in Vacchini’s long collaborations with critics and theorists. And not last, it makes reference to the way he actually worked: by always talking the project through with one of his colleagues: Luigi Snozzi, Aurelio Galfetti, Mauro Vanetti, Eloisa Vacchini or Silvia Gmür.

Introductive speech by: professors Adalberto del Bo, Luca Ortelli

The 2^nd of April 2017 marks 10 years since the death of Livio Vacchini (1933-2007). It is the moment of a retrospective look towards his architectural legacy. He was one of the masters of the so-called Ticino School, together with Mario Botta, Luigi Snozzi and Aurelio Galfetti. Even though they came to the public attention as representatives of an architectural school on the occasion of the famous 1975 exhibition ‘Tendenzen – Neuere Architektur im Tessin’, the work of Livio Vacchini stands as a unique way of conceiving architecture and cannot be comprehended by attributing it to a style, group or architectural movement. Vacchini places his thought in the space opened up by the greatest masters of architecture, from Louis Kahn and Mies van der Rohe and back to the architects of the ancient Greek temples, of the Pyramids and even of the Stonehenge. His legacy is classical in the sense of its timelessness, by resisting to contemporary novelties and always taking the part of the inner logic and coherence of the architectural project. In a contemporary world where knowledge is defined by means of quantity and diffusion, Vacchini’s importance is crucial as he operates a vertical cut going to the fundamentals of architecture on the axis of time and logic and being able to see the sacred in a discipline which is informed by the everyday reality. In doing so, he attained an extraordinary synthesis of practice and theory in the concrete act of making the project.

Vacchini did not see himself as a talented architect, but rather as a hard working thinker who operates in the field of architecture. Therefore, his architectural biography takes the form of an intellectual, cultural, philosophical confrontation with the masterpieces of the past: “the best of the new corresponds to an ancient need; authentic works are thus critiques of those of the past”.

While centering on the Nancy school built in 1995, Vacchini’s Double presents his work through the lens of this cultural critique that each of his project operates. The lecture also brings into question a fundamental character of his work: the duality – understood as a key instrument in constructing the absoluteness of the architectural form. The Double also recalls a biographical note in Vacchini’s long collaborations with critics and theorists. And not last, it makes reference to the way he actually worked: by always talking the project through with one of his colleagues.

The lecture is part of the Erasmus+ program. It is an excerpt of the work resulted from the post-doctoral research conducted by Stefan Simion at the ‘École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne’ in 2013-2014, under the supervision of professor Luca Ortelli. The research was made possible by SCIEX-NMS (the scientific exchange Programme between Switzerland and the New Member States of the European Union). A brief presentation of the work can be found at www.liviovacchini.ch .

Stefan Simion teaches the architectural project in the 2^nd and 3^rd years at the ‘University of Architecture and Urbanism Ion Mincu’ of Bucharest since 2004 (see the studio’s website www.fakestability.tumblr.com ). He is cofounder of the architectural design office POSTER (www.theposter.ro) with Irina Melita since 2007.

Professor Luca Ortelli, head of ‘Laboratoire de Construction et Conservation’, ‘École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne’. Luca Ortelli’s personal research is focused on crucial experiences dating from the beginning of 20th century, according to German avant-garde radical positions and social democratic quiet revolution in Northern Europe countries.

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