Cultural Center, Chambéry, France, South elevation
Mario Botta
Swiss, born 1943
1982-86
An architectural elevation rendered in colored pencil and graphite on printed paper that presents Mario Botta’s design for a cultural center in Chambéry, aiming to communicate the building’s form, materials, and relationship to the street and neighboring structures.
The drawing arrests you with its austere, geometric composition—a low, cylindrical volume topped by a green, faceted roof sits beside a tall, ribbed block, both rendered in calm, tactile tones so that the building reads as a monumental, tactile object contrasted against the faint outline of adjacent buildings and tiny human figures for scale.
This work exemplifies late‑20th‑century architectural practice where hand‑rendered drawings clarified massing, materiality, and urban presence, reflecting Botta’s revival of strong, primitive geometry and tectonic clarity in public architecture.
Medium
Colored pencil and graphite on print
Dimensions
18 x 43 1/4" (45.7 x 109.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the architect
Accession
215.1987
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
