Mario Botta

Mario Botta: the architecture of the sacred

© Nicola Gnesi. Courtesy Fondazione Henraux.

As part of the ethics initiative Art of Molecule, internationally acclaimed Tinico born architect Mario Botta followed our invitation to present his ideas and visions behind the numerous sacred buildings (churches, mosques & synagogues) he designed all over the world. After listening to his lecture an audience of 200 consisting of NCCR MSE scientists, members of other academic disciplines as well as the general Basel public entered into a lively discussion about Botta’s work and possible parallels to the NCCR MSE research projects. Mario Botta’s approach that sacred buildings are “spaces generated by the relationship with the context, by light, by the materials, by the geometries that compose them” became one of the evening‘s most intensely discussed statements challenging the ongoing philosophical discussion about the paradigm shifting concept to control molecular factories, cellular systems and health.