Bruno Reichlin

Bruno Reichlin was born in Lucerne (Switzerland) in 1941. He graduated in architecture in 1967 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and attended summer semiotics courses at the University of Urbino in 1971 and 1972. From 1969 to 1970 he was assistant to Giovanni Klaus König at the University of Florence and from 1972 to 1974, with Fabio Reinhart, to Aldo Rossi at the ETH where he held the position of scientific collaborator at the Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur (1972-1981).
He was visiting professor at Nancy (1983-1984); professor at the Ecole d'Architecture and then full professor at the Institut d'Architecture of the University of Geneva (1984-2006) where he promoted and directed the DEA (Diplôme d'études approfondies) in "Sauvegarde du patrimoine bâti moderne et contemporain" from which the doctoral school was born. Finally, he was a professor at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Università della Svizzera Italiana (2002-2011), where he promoted and since 2009 has been co-responsible, with Franz Graf and Roberta Grignolo, for the research project "Critical Encyclopedia for the Reuse and Restoration of 20th Century Architecture". Since 2002 he has been collaborating with the Archivio del Moderno of Mendrisio, of which he was a member of the Scientific Committee from 2004 to 2011. 
As an historian and critic, he has opened up new fields of investigation, focusing mainly on the development of critical tools aimed at analysing "all modes of existence" of the architectural object. In his role as curator, and sometimes organiser, of exhibitions of international importance, he has critically re-read the movements and protagonists of 20th century architecture.
As an architect, he designed with Fabio Reinhart, with whom he shared his professional studio in Lugano from 1970 to 1988, the Tonini house in Torricella (1972-1974) and the Sartori house in Riveo (1976-1977); the restoration and transformation of the Palazzo Pretorio in Sornico (1974-1975), the church of San Carlo in Val di Peccia (1971-1979), the house of Cavalier Pellanda in Biasca (1976-1988), as well as the development of various projects including that for the villa of Andrej Tarkovskij in Roccalbegna, Tuscany. From 1975 to 1981 he also opened a studio in Zurich with Marie-Claude Bétrix and Eraldo Consolascio with whom he built the Sferax factory in Cortaillod (Neuchâtel, 1977-1982) and the Berani warehouse in Uster (Zurich, 1980-1982). With Gabriele Geronzi he designed furniture for Molteni. 
His interests, both didactic and professional, have long been oriented towards the reuse and restoration of modern and contemporary architecture and he is a member of the Committee des experts pour l’oeuvre architecturale of the Fondation Le Corbusier and of the Commission Nationale des Monuments Historiques of the French state.