An exceptional exhibition on Luigi Snozzi
Archizoom is organizing a retrospective exhibition on Luigi Snozzi, in which his former students have also been invited to present a creation that reflects, in their eyes, a part of the heritage of their years of study in the architect’s workshop.
“… the aim of teaching architecture is not simply the forming of brilliant and skillful architects, but rather that of intellectual critics endowed with a moral conscience.” Luigi Snozzi, during his inaugural lecture at EPFL in 1985.
One can learn to build, but to embrace a complex and autonomous discipline responsibly is another matter. Important pedagogical questions inevitably present themselves, such as how far to take the discipline, whether teaching should be approached as a dogma or as a dialogue, and how to present architecture to students who are encountering the subject for the first time. Luigi Snozzi devoted much of his professional life to these questions. He went about teaching project design by using his own work as an example. Answers can thus be searched for within his aphorisms and projects, which are exhibited here. To complete this debate, further response was found in Snozzi’s ex-students. They constitute a generation of architects who have been active in the field for ten to twenty years. Each is presenting a project in which a legacy of the years of study in Snozzi’s studio is apparent.
The appointment on call of Luigi Snozzi as a professor at the EPFL was certainly not calm nor usual. During its processing, the appointment was suddenly withdrawn, leading to a strong response from the student body. The students organised a demonstration and staged a sit-in in the president's office, imparting a powerful spirit of resistance. This strategy succeeded and Snozzi ended up directing a large studio there until 1997. Fifty of Snozzi’s past students display their own architectural work around that of their former professor. Whether they have distanced themselves or stuck to his views, all wish to pay homage to this unique architect. The exhibition plays host to a momentous meeting and celebrates an important milestone of Swiss contemporary architecture.
1 October 2010 – 4 December 2010
Location: Room SG 1212: http://plan.epfl.ch/?room=SG1212
Monday to Friday – 09:30 – 17:30
Saturday 14:00 – 18:00