Mario Monotti

He studied at the ETH Zurich, where in 1999 he took a degree in civil engineering, and in 2004 a doctorate in technical sciences. After gaining initial professional experience in Zurich, he moves to Ticino where he founded the studio Monotti Ingegneri Consulenti SA based in Locarno. He has worked with many important architects on a national and international level, and his firm has received many prizes and honours with public and private commissions in the field of constructions in reinforced concrete, steel and wood.

Lecture focus

The technological revolution threatens architecture.
The danger is not much generated by the shift in people’s interest but the constant decrease in the numbers of crafts-men and building workers in the service of the construction. New construction machinery has improved productivity by offsetting the reduction in manpower. However, this process has led to a standardisation of the buildings to the detriment of diversity and, consequently, of architectural value.

To survive, architecture is pressured to accept technology and shape it to its own need. By engaging in a dialogue with technology, prefabrication offers a correct response to this situation by giving a new form, the digital one, to craftsmanship and reducing work on-site to the bare minimum.

The lecture will illustrate through a selection of projects some new achievements of the construction given by the application of the prefabrication.