The Library of the Academy of Architecture, established in 1996 alongside the founding of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), has grown over 29 years into one of Switzerland’s premier libraries for the history of art and architecture.
Through systematic and extensive acquisitions of new publications, the library continuously updates its holdings in architecture and the arts, while significant bequests of historic library collections, private author collections and acquisitions of specialized Fonds document the evolution of scholarly discourse in these fields.
Against this temporal context, the library fulfils a three-fold mission: it is a teaching resource serving as a central information hub for the Academy of Architecture; it is an academic library offering support for the university’s research institutes; and it is a special library that ensures the preservation of the architectural and artistic heritage, particularly of Ticino, Switzerland and southern Europe.