Middle school Morbio inferiore, Switzerland1972-1777Project1972Construction 1972-1977Commissioned by Canton Ticino Site area 28’800 m²Net floor area 15’000 m²Volume 68’500 m³“Despite the subdued brutality in the character of its construction, the school’s design is basically organized around light. Natural illumination for the room is provided from diverse sources. The subtle upside-down bay windows in the facades, as well as the loggias that define each of the eight constructed bodies, functionally use light in a different way than would normally occur, and are aided by skylights located near the central backbone of the design…an axis that is modelled like a promenade, with junctions of passages and with indentations that are placed at regular intervals, in prospective, to assure the transparency of the empty space around which the building gels”.Francesco Dal Cò, “La pazienza delle cose” in Mario Botta, Architetture 1960-1985, Electa, Milano, 1985.