The Library
The Library of the Academy of Architecture was established in 1996 alongside the founding of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), and has grown over 29 years into one of Switzerland’s premier libraries for 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.
Its site in Palazzo Turconi covers an area of 1800 sq.m., with 110 individual study spaces and 4 small study rooms for group work. The open access shelves house the general collection, private author collections and a huge collection of magazines on the topics of architecture, art, design, photography, restoration, city and local area planning and landscape development. Our antique books and graphic and photographic collections are kept in suitably climate-controlled rooms.
Bibliographical searches can be carried out using the catalog, which includes not only our book collection but also other documentary and electronic resources for these disciplines owned and suitably curated by the Academy Library. The library catalog also offers access to swisscovery, a research platform that aggregates the collections of 500 academic libraries across Switzerland. Through the inter-library loan service using the swisscovery courier we can offer swift access to the entire stock of academic documents kept in libraries throughout Switzerland: over 40 million books and periodicals, and more than 3 billion electronic articles.
Our intention is to create a laboratory in the service of thought, research and planning, offering a collection of analog and digital documents that not only encourage the study and understanding of the discipline of architecture but also enable the pursuit of creative cognitive pathways and new discoveries achieved through finding unexpected or even chance similarities, parallels and correspondences.
