SCI-ARC
vico
VISITING PROFESSOR SPRING TERM 2006
VICO MORCOTE, SWITZERLAND
UNDERGRADUATE/GRADUATE
2006

SUSANNE ZOTTL             
ARCHITECTURE MAG.ARCH.    
                          
SUSANNE.ZOTTL@ZOTTLBUDA.AT
ASLANGASSE 10/2/4         
1190 VIENNA AUSTRIA       
PHONE +431 3208838 FAX+9  
                          
         WITH             
LUDOVICA MOLO             
ARCHITECT LUGANO          

ALONG THE CASSARATE RIVER
The semester pointed at sharpening the students’ view and at heighthening their alertness towards existing conditions, the urban context and the “hi-story” of the site and its surroundings. This process aimed at training the abilities of approaching the complex nature of urban problems. The interpretations of existing values on the site and in the city were based on observations at various scales - from the urban scale to the scale of objects.
 
In an abstract interpretation of the found conditions on the site, the students approached the city of Lugano in an intuitive way. Abstract models focussed on specific observations and pointed already in a direction where the student‘s particular interests lies.
  
The further decisions regarding the urban scheme were based on the observations on and interpretations of the site. Cross-references to the abstract model form the base of the decisions. So some schemes literally took the given site as a point of departure and streched their schemes along the future axis of urban development in Lugano - the Cassarate River.
   
The Casserate River in the City of Lugano represents a strategically important axis, along which the city will develop and grow in the near future. While appearing as a little creek throughout the bigger part of the year, the riverbed will house an agressive stream after rainy days and will even overflow in the area close to the Lake Lugano, as this happened in the year 2002.
    
The right bank of the river (West side) limits the historically grown center of the city; the land that is situated on the left bank (East side) traditionally provided the city with agricultural goods. The goal was to transform a dividing gap into a connecting element that would allow for an exchange between the at present seperated quarters.
     
The program developed out of the interpretation of the site and the particular necessities - spatial and social. The range reached from a public park and childrens‘ museum to housing projects that incorporated living and working as well as a concert hall with a music school including student housing.