Aurelio Galfetti, Bellinzona, Switzerland, 1959-61
OfHouses guest curated by Jeff Kaplon (Subtilitas): The
idea of an evolving relationship to landscape in a daily cycle. In
Galfetti’s Casa Rotalinti, the occupant’s 24 hour cycle of habitation dictates
the carving of the brutalist concrete cube perched atop a Bellinzona valley,
its massing perhaps referencing the nearby Castello di Sasso Corbaro. One
enters the roof from a bridge that connects to a parking space, and descends
downward via an organic spiral stair to the picturesque, sunset-capturing
glazed area of the “day zone” in which one’s relationship to the surroundings
is distant and abstracted. As the day wanes, one continues to descend to the
lower portions of the “night zone”, ultimately and literally grounded on the
forest floor, where the interaction with the landscape becomes much more
intimate. (Photos: © ‘Aurelio Galfetti Arquitecte’, Quaderns d'arquitectura i urbanisme 155 (1982), 13-15; aureliogalfetti.ch.)
