Valerio Olgiati

Valerio Olgiati is a Swiss architect, born in 1958. He initially studied architecture at ETH Zurich, a public research university in Zurich, Switzerland.

Valerio Olgiati

Some of Olgiati's projects include the School Building in Paspels^[1] and the Yellow House Museum in Flims.^[2] Other notable buildings include the House for the Musician/Atelier Bardill in Scharans,^[3] the Villa Além in Alentejo,^[4] the UNESCO World Heritage Bahrain Pearling Trail visitor center in Muharraq,^[5] and the Baloise Insurance Building in Basel.^[6]

Architectural theory

Schoolhouse Paspels

Yellow House, Flims

Atelier Bardill, Scharans

Villa Além, Alentejo

UNESCO World Heritage Pearling Site Visiting Center, Muharraq

Baloise Insurance Building, Basel

Celine flagship store, Miami

Olgiati refers to his work as "non-referential architecture," which is also the title of a 2018 treatise by Olgiati and architectural theorist Markus Breitschmid and discusses the social purpose of architecture for the 21st century.^[7]

Olgiati and Breitschmid state, "Non-referential architecture is not an architecture that subsists as a referential vessel or as a symbol of something outside itself. Non-referential buildings are entities that are themselves meaningful and sense-making and, as such, no less the embodiment of society than buildings were in the past when they were the bearers of common social ideals."^[8]

The term "non-referential" in architecture first appeared in a reprint of an interview between Olgiati and Breitschmid in the Italian architecture journal Domus.^[9] In 2014, Breitschmid published "Architektur leitet sich von Architektur ab" (Architecture is Derived from Architecture) in the Swiss journal Werk, Bauen + Wohnen as a response to architectural claims that attempt to derive meaning from external factors such as economics, ecology, and politics.^[10] Architect Christian Kerez explored the limits of referentiality and spoke of "non-referential space" in relation to his contribution to the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2016.^[11] In the same year, architect Peter Eisenman noted that architecture has been moving toward non-referential objectivity, as architectural form is increasingly reduced "to a pure reality."^[12]

In Non-Referential Architecture, Olgiati and Breitschmid analyze societal currents of the early 21st century, arguing that they significantly differ from the postmodern era.^[13] The book proposes a framework for architecture and defines seven principles for non-referential architecture: 1) experience of space; 2) oneness; 3) newness; 4) construction; 5) contradiction; 6) order; and 7) sense making.^[14]

Career

Olgiati has stated that his immigration to Los Angeles was the most important step in his architectural formation, an event he claims to be more significant than his architectural education. According to Olgiati, living in the United States allowed him to understand the world in formal, natural terms rather than symbolic or historical ones.^[15]

Zug-Schleife, Zug

This shift in perspective which moved away from grounding architecture in tradition, was theoretically expressed in his Iconographic Autobiography, published in 2006.^[16] Iconographic Autobiography is an anthology of 55 illustrations that foreshadow non-referential architecture. The author intentionally presents the references in his work as devoid of inherent meaning.^[17] Olgiati holds the perspective that only fundamental insights from spatial experience can advance contemporary architecture in today's diverse societies.^[18]

Valerio Olgiati operates his architecture office with his wife Tamara in Portugal and Switzerland.^[19] His work has been featured in solo exhibitions and at institutions including the National Museum of Modern Art, the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, and the Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City.^[20] Olgiati has also held teaching positions at Harvard University (Kenzo Tange Chair), ETH Zürich, Cornell University, and the AA in London. He has held a professorial position at the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio since 2002.^[21]