Following the exhibition Tendenzen-Neuere Architektur im Tessin in Zurich in 1975
contemporaneous architecture in Ticino became the subject of fervent coverage in Swiss and
international publications. This extended essay argues that the critical attention emancipated
the narratives of Ticino architecture from the actual conditions of production leading to the
paradoxical divergence of its historiography from its history. Placing well-known external
constructs such as the notion of the School of the Ticino against the robust skepticism of
local architects and historians the essay chronicles the long-term consequences of the
misalignment between autonomous theory and situated knowledge.
