The Bergell, a narrow and deep valley in the Swiss Alps, is the homeland of the Giacometti family. In this context, we have proposed the students to design a Giacometti Museum in Stampa, where the atelier is located. The collection of interviews, essays and projects included in the issue 3 analyses the semester results and the physical and cultural conditions of the valley. Both the material and the immaterial context, the strong topographic conditions and the Giacometti presence, have had a major influence on the projects that talk in an interesting way about memory and place.
Our Giacometti project deals with a very important question that is the meaning of the word context. What is a context? Which is the context?
Of course the context is connected with the physical facts, with the geography, the topography, with the climate, the snow, the temperature and also...
The home of the Giacometti’s, the Val Bregaglia is an Italian speaking valley on the south side of the Alps expanding in an extremely deep drop from the heights of the Maloja and the Septimer pass towards south to the Italian border ending in the lowlands of North Italy in Chiavenna. The...
Read moreCrossing the Bergell valley, the memory of the Giacomettis is present through the way they have described the villages and the landscape: Giovanni Giacometti's landscape visions of the valley, the houses and gardens of Stampa painted by Augusto and the landscape reflected by Alberto from the window...
Read moreHow in your opinnion the strong physical and geographical conditions of Bregaglia influence the architecture of the valley?
There are some very strong elements, as the mountains and the shapes, these very stiff shapes. I live in Soglio, where the strong presence of the mountains is always...
Dario Wohler's project raises two interesting questions in relationship with the physical and cultural conditions of the place. On one hand, the dialogue with the strong topographic conditions of the Bergell valley. On the other, the definition of the exhibition space by means of light to create...
Read moreThis project is situated outside the structure of the village, just by the limit of the forest on the dark side of the Alpine valley which makes its major reference. Alienated from the artificial elements of the surrounding, it grows organically from nature, corresponding to its daily and yearly...
Read moreFrom the viewpoint of adaptation Xiong Sun’s project demonstrates that architecture does not solely operate within its immediate surroundings - the ever present contextual influences and bioclimatic factors - but can also provoke the engagement of a larger landscape, in this particular case the...
Read moreIn the winter semester 2010, we have proposed to design a small exhibition building for the famous artist family from Stampa.
The museum is situated in the Bregaglia valley, where once one of the main trading routes crossing the Alps over the Septimer Pass began. The impressing physical presence...