Galfetti, Aurelio (b Lugano, 13 June 1936)

Swiss architect. As a student he designed the Casa Rotalinti (1960), Bellinzona, a work of brilliant simplicity inspired by Le Corbusier. After producing kindergartens and schools on similar principles in Biasca and Riva San Vitale, he designed the neuro-psychological clinic (1969–75), Mendrisio, a glass and steel structure recalling the technical positivism of Fritz Haller. Galfetti established his reputation with his open-air swimming pool (1970; with Flora Ruchat and Ivo Trümpy), Bellinzona, undertaken as an urban renovation project influenced by the theories of Aldo Rossi. Galfetti’s aim of modernizing the historic urban fabric of Bellinzona was further demonstrated by the tennis court complex and several residential blocks in the form of towers, which are related by the use of traditional and modern elements to the historic palaces and walls of the city. In contrast is his severe, unsentimental restoration of the Castelgrande, the castle overlooking Bellinzona, an example of his stated aims of ‘conserving by transformation’ and of ‘making the past topical’. Here the lift entrance hewn from the supporting rock is designed in the manner of an expressively grandiose Wagnerian cave. Although a leading member of the Ticino school, it was only after the completion of the large Main Post Office (1985), Bellinzona, that he established an international reputation.