Casa Rotonda

Mario Botta - Stabio, Ticino, Switzerland

1980 - 1982
Clients - Liliana and Ovidio Medici
Site area - 700 m
Volume - 1400 m

Neal Philipsen 2011

form - technique - body - space

Form
form |frm|
noun
1 the visible shape or configuration of something :
arrangement of parts; shape : the entities underlying physical form.
the body or shape of a person or thing :
2 a particular way in which a thing exists or appears; a manifestation :
any of the ways in which a word may be spelled, pronounced, or
inflected : an adjectival rather than adverbial form.
3 a type or variety of something

I imagined a building with a circular plan,

cut across its north-south axis by fissure
from which the zenithal light descends. A
volume organized on three levels, a sort
of tower, or rather, an object designed
and cut out itself

Tracing elevational geometries

on the surface of the
Casa Rotonda

form - 1

The Casa Rotonda, or the Round House,

by Mario Botta is a building determined
by its use as a single family home, but
one which acts largely as an artifact on
the southern Swiss landscape. Many aspects of the building can be traced back
to Paul Rudolphs Six Determinants of
Architectural Form, including environment, function, lighting, materials, psychological demands, and spirit of the
times, however, with a particular emphasis on psychological demands that both
supports the other determinants, and in
other ways intentionally neglects them.

The psychological demands of
space, as defined by Paul Rudolph, is very
evident in the form of the Casa Rotonda
and reflects many of Mario Bottass own
philosophies. According to Rudolph,
meeting the psychological demands
of a space, means manipulating shape
and using symbols to create a certain
monumentality to space. He goes on
to say We must learn anew how to create a place of worship and inspiration
(Rudolph 214). Mario Botta, as evident in
the Casa Rotonda, does not think it is a
stretch to apply this to the family home.
In Quasi un Diario, Frammenti intorno
allarchitecttura (Almost a Diary, Fragments about architecture) Botta quotes

Ruskin, I say that if men truly lived as

men, their houses would be temples
(Botta 213). The Round House does in
fact look like a temple, seemingly noncompliant with its traditional function
as a family home. The facades careful attention to geometric pure forms cut from
a perfect cylinder, is something sooner
associated with worship and contemplation than family living. However, Botta
argues that the two are not mutually
exclusive. The home is a space of protection, a place of reflection, where it is
possible to cultivate the human and psychological resources necessary to take
on tomorrow. Botta quotes in Almost a
Diary the oft heard sentiment Im tired,
Im going home, (Botta 213) to illustrate
home as a reprieve from life, not unlike
how many view a temple. By choosing
with temple-like form, Botta also makes
a very intentional statement in regards
to paradigms of form. He questions the
historical shape of residential form, and
subsequently creates a local heterogeneity that challenges the built and natural
form around it.

The form of the Casa Rotonda intentionally subverts the tradition of architecture in the area, a concept reminiscent of the new architecture described
by Jeffrey Kipnis. One of the key princi-

Extracting shapes,
or pure forms, from
the Casa Rotonda

form - 2

ples of DeFormation, a term Kipnis uses

to describe his new architecture, is an
emphasis on abstract, monolithic architectural form that broaches minimal direct references or resemblances and and
that is alien to the dominant architectural
modes of a given site (Kipnis 109). This
principle accurately describes the Casa
Rotondas form and situation on its site.
The tall, three storey cylindrical shape
of the building with a triangular cap and
bold square cut outs, defies the predominately two storey, rectangular, typical
family homes that enclose the site. The
building stands like a medieval-modern
tower that overlooks, yet simultaneously
turns its back, on the proletarian homes
below. In Bottas own words: The intention was to avoid any comparison and/
or contrast with the surrounding buildings, but to search instead for a spatial

form - 3

100ft
50m

Casa Rotonda
contrasted with the
surrounding built
environment

100ft
50m

north

north

relationship with the distant landscape and

horizon. By using a cylindrical volume I
wanted to avoid elevations that would necessarily have to be compared to the facades
of the existing houses around it (Botta,
Botta.ch). Although it can be argued that
the Casa Rotonda does significantly invite
comparison and contrast to the surrounding buildings, what is perhaps more interesting is Bottas assertion that the Round
House creates a relationship with the landscape. Lighting and views aside, the form of
the building itself does little to reflect the
environment and instead searches for form
in abstract geometries.

The attention paid to geometry in
the Round House is a process steeped in
tradition. The philosophy of pure form
and geometry goes as far back as Plato
(Theory of Forms), and has been significantly observed in architecture theoretically since the late 19th century. In Modern
Architecture and Historical Change Alan
Colquhoun points out the work of designers in the late 19th century who searched
for pure form and whose work were characterized by a degree of abstraction, a simplicity and purity of profile, and an absence
of detail and ornament (Colquhoun 195). A
similar description can be made for Bottas
Casa Rotonda. Profiles of the building are
simple and abstract, detailed with immediately recognizable shapes, and generally

500ft
200m

absent of ornament. However, the building

cannot be immediately be called modern,
in the stylistic sense of the word. The accented symmetry of the building as a circle (in plan), without necessarily having a
functional justification, and the focus on
pure forms, suggests a more post-modern,
even neoclassical, take on style. The use of
a roman frieze across the top of the cylinder
reinforces this subtle eclecticism, as does
the triangular top reminiscent of a classical
pediment.

north

Casa Rotonda
contrasted with the
surrounding natural
environment

form - 4

Works Cited
Jeffrey Kipnis, Towards a New Architecture, in Architectural Design, Mar-Apr 1993. Vol.63, Iss.3-4
Paul Rudolph, The Six Determinants of Architectural Form, in C. Jencks and K. Kropf, eds., Theories
and Manifestoes of Contemporary Architecture, WileyAcademy, 2006.
Alan Colquhoun, Form and Figure, in Essays in Architectural Criticism: Modern Architecture and
Historical Change, MIT Press, 1981.
Mario Botta, Quasi un Diario, Frammenti intorno allarchitecttura
Mario Botta, Botta.ch. Accessed Oct 17 2011.

form - 5