Architect, Switzerland Mario Botta gained architectural fame during the early 1970s when he began designing small houses in the Ticino region of Switzerland. Botta completed an apprenticeship with Tita Carloni and architectural studies in Milan and Venice, prior to opening his own office in 1969. The houses he designed during the early 1970s established the Ticino school and changed Swiss architec-ture dramatically. It is largely because of Botta’s innovative work that the present generation of Swiss architects is internationally acclaimed. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Ticino region changed from a primarily agricultural economy, to an industrial one that emphasizes tourism. The primary cause of this change was the integration of this region into the European highway system at the beginning of the 1960s. Most of the Ticino architects built for the wealthy bourgeoisie who profited from the economic change, and Botta’s first commissions came either from clients to whom he was rec...