Santa Cruz de la Sierra is located on the eastern plains of Bolivia, on the banks of the Pirai River. Being the most populous city in the country, it reveals an extreme social and cultural complexity surrounded by extensive pampas and plains. Additionally, it represents one of the most developed cities in Bolivia, with a high municipal indicator of sustainable development. Delving into the importance of community architecture, popular appropriation, the character of urbanity, and other concepts, this article explores the history behind the Summit of the Americas Monument through a series of narratives, documentations, drawings, and images captured by Pino Musi.

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Swiss architect Mario Botta is known for his geometrically imposing, spatially captivating structures that are invariably dressed in zebra-like horizontal stripes in either black and white or red and white combinations. These both traditional and strikingly modern villas, chapels, wineries, schools, libraries, museums, company headquarters, banks, and residential blocks are scattered throughout towns and mountainous villages in the architect’s native Ticino region in southern Switzerland, extend all over Europe and can be encountered in places as far away as China, India, South Korea, Japan, and the USA.

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Videos

"Mario Botta: The Space Beyond" is a 78’ architectural documentary on the life journey and works of internationally-acclaimed Swiss architect Mario Botta. The film, which provides a glimpse of the person behind the architect, is co-directed by Loretta Dalpozzo and Michèle Volontè, and produced by Swissbridge Productions.

On the 16th, 17th and 19th of October, the documentary will be screened in New York during the Architecture and Design Film Festival, in the presence of the architect himself and the directors. The film will also be screened during the upcoming Rotterdam Film Festival, Beirut Art Festival, Artecinema film festival (Naples Italy), Milan Deign Film festival, and ADFF in Toronto and Vancouver.