Gotthard Bank, Lugano, Switzerland, Elevation

Mario Botta

c.1985

An architectural elevation rendered in colored pencil on print showing Mario Botta’s design for the Gotthard Bank in Lugano, aiming to present a monumental, brick-clad block pierced by a central glazed spine.

What hits you is the strict symmetry and blocky monumentality—pinkish brick bands and dense hatched shadows form a rhythmic pattern of horizontal stripes and recessed bays punctuated by a narrow dark-glass vertical core and a tiny human figure at the base for scale.

The drawing typifies Botta’s late-20th-century project of reclaiming heavy, masonry-based geometry within modern architecture, helping to popularize a regional, tectonic language that treats institutional buildings as sculptural civic objects.

Palette

Art Terms

Architectural drawing Elevation drawing Colored pencil Print Architecture Built environment

Exhibitions

Transformations in Modern Architecture

1979

Mario Botta

1986

Painting and Sculpture in Architecture

1949

New Design Trends

1952