Vita

Valerio Olgiati was born in 1958, the son of architect Rudolf Olgiati. He grew up in Flims and attended high school in Chur. In the 1980s he studied architecture at ETH Zurich and then emigrated to the United States, where he experienced contemporary deconstructivism at its peak in the multicultural society of Los Angeles. After several years, he returned to Switzerland in 1996, at a time when Swiss architecture known today, was already highly developed. With the experience of these two very different cultures in mind, he founded his own architecture firm. Today, Olgiati lives and works with his wife Tamara, also an architect, between Flims, Avers and Alentejo.

His buildings and his theoretical approach to architecture receive worldwide attention and are often described as cult.

Olgiati entered the international architectural discourse with two buildings completed in quick succession, the school in Paspels and the small museum "Das Gelbe Haus" in Flims. His most known buildings include the Atelier for the musician Linard Bardill in Scharans, the Museum for the Swiss National Park in Zernez, the Villa Além in Alentejo, the UNESCO Site Visitor Center and Museum in Muharraq, the tower building with Learning Center for Baloise Insurance Company in Basel, the now-demolished flagship store for Celine in Miami and the mountain house at 2000 m above sea level in Avers. Selected key projects include a restaurant project in Lake Cauma in Flims, the first prize for the new university in Lucerne, the winning museum project in the first public competition after the fall of the Iron Curtain in Perm, the San Felipe residential tower in Lima, the Yeezy Campus for Kanye West in Wyoming and 3 skyscrapers for "Grand Park Skyline" in Tirana.

He held various teaching positions, including the Kenzo Tange Chair at Harvard University. He also taught at ETH Zurich, at Cornell University in Ithaca and at the AA in London. Since 2002, Olgiati has been a full professor at USI Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio.

His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at various institutions, including ETH Zurich, the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo and the former Colegio San Ildefonso in Mexico City. Olgiati is an honorary member of the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA).

For more than 25 years, Olgiati has been challenging the architectural discourse with buildings, projects, and theoretical works of great importance.

He strives for an architecture that speaks directly to people. An architecture that is not primarily experienced through the interpretation of its narrative, but above all through the physical act of being within it.

Olgiati is convinced that buildings directly affect a person's physical sensations through their sheer mass and that everyone, regardless of origin or education, faces the same emotional impact of space. He sees man in architecture not as an outside observer, but as the feeling center of the space.

According to Olgiati, the true social relevance of architecture lies in the direct, value-free encounter between the individual and the space.

In his treatise Non-Referential Architecture, he states: "Non-referential architecture must speak to the unbounded and non-ideological mental agility of people who live in that non-referential world of today. Therefore, a building cannot be historical or symbolical in the sense that it represents something above and beyond itself, because no consensus exists as to what that above and beyond would possibly be. A building exists only for itself".

His buildings are based on formal and natural laws and conditions and rely on fundamental spatial experience with which the individual person orders his world. Instead of embedding visitors and residents of his buildings into one or another pre-existing ideal, style or ideological group, Olgiati's architecture emancipates the individual people by offering them an act of sense-making. Contrary to the modernist and postmodern dogma that buildings improve the lives of groups of people according to predefined values, articulated outside the discipline of architecture (e.g., politics, economics, sociology), Olgiati's buildings offer the individual who actually uses a building, the opportunity to expand his own possibilities directly and without recourse to extra-architectural conceptualizations.

Olgiati has stated that his temporary emigration to Los Angeles was the most important step in his architectural formation. An event he claims to be more significant than his upbringing in a particular culture, country, or his architectural education. According to Olgiati, living in the United States allowed him to understand the world in formal, natural terms rather than symbolic or historical ones.

Since the mid-2000s, Olgiati has distanced himself from the idea that buildings must be symbols or carriers of extra-architectural content and has begun to speak of non-referential architecture in lectures and interviews.

His departure from basing architecture of referentiality also found its early theoretical form in his so-called Iconographic Autobiography, first published in 2006. The Iconographic Autobiography is a collection of 55 illustrations with which Olgiati shows how he understands architectural conditions formally and not through narrative references. Non-Referential Architecture can already be glimpsed in this collection. It points to references that are no longer used as carriers of meaning. People are invited to understand an architectural work more with their senses than with their intellect.

He believes that only an architecture built on spatial experience and implemented consistently is capable of truly moving our highly heterogeneous society today.



Monographs

  • WYOMING, Valerio Olgiati for Kanye West, About Books GmbH, Zürich, Limited first edition, March 2026, English: ISBN 978-3-906946-44-3, 80 pages
  • Mazzocchioo #8, Notes on the Conference of Valerio Olgiati in Bucharest, Publisher: “Ion Mincu” University Press, Bucharest, Romania February 2023, 96 pages
  • built, by Valerio Olgiati, Park Books, Zürich, 2023, English: ISBN 978-3-03860-283-5, 196 pages
  • 비참조적건축, 구상 발레리오 올지아티/저술 마르쿠스 브라이트슈미트, Hoi, Suwon- si, Republic of Korea, 2023, Korea: ISBN 979-11-972696-9-1, 120 pages
  • Architecture Non-Référentielle, Idéé par Valerio Olgiati, Écrit par Markus Breitschmid, Éditions Cosa Mentale, Marseille, 2021, Français: ISBN 978-2-491039-12-7, 144 pages
  • a+u Nr. 601: Valerio Olgiati, Non-Referential Architecture, Herausgeber: A+U Publishing Co. Ltd. 2020, Tokyo, No. 20:10 (601), Japan Oktober 2020; Japanisch u. Englisch: ISBN 4910019731009 02593, 159 Seiten
  • Architettura Non-Referenziale, Ideato da Valerio Olgiati/Scritto da Markus Breitschmid, Park Books, Zürich, prima edizione 2019, Italiano: ISBN 978-3-03860-143-2, 144 pages
  • Non-Referential Architecture, Ideated by Valerio Olgiati/Written by Markus Breitschmid, Park Books, Zürich, new revised edition 2019, English: ISBN , 144 pages
  • Nicht-Referenzielle Architektur, Gedacht von Valerio Olgiati/Geschrieben von Markus Breitschmid, Park Books, Zürich, überarbeitete Neuausgabe 2019, Deutsch: ISBN 978-3-03860-141-8, 144 pages
  • Valerio Olgiati, Monograph, Projects 2009-2017, by Valerio Olgiati, Text by Jacques Lucan, Description of the projects by Valerio Olgiati, Simonett & Baer, Basel, First Edition, January 2018, English: ISBN 978-3-906313-11-5, German: ISBN 978-3- 906313-14-6, 276 pages
  • Valerio Olgiati, The Idea of Architecture, Arquine S.A. de C.V., Cuidad de México, First Edition 2018, English and Spanish Edition, 33 pages
  • Non-Referential Architecture, Ideated by Valerio Olgiati/Written by Markus Breitschmid, Simonett & Baer, Basel, First Edition May 2018, English: ISBN 978- 3-906313-19-1, 128 pages
  • Nicht-Referenzielle Architektur, Gedacht von Valerio Olgiati/Geschrieben von Markus Breitschmid, Simonett & Baer, Basel, Erste Auflage Mai 2018, German: ISBN 978-3-906313-20-7, 128 pages
  • Inexnewspaper No. 5: “Valerio Olgiati”, Editor: Amelia Brandao Costa, Rodrigo da Costa Lima, Porto 2016, Portugal; English and Portuguese: ISSN 2182-3391, 52 pages
  • Valerio Olgiati, Villa Além, Forword by Valerio Olgiati, Text by Tom Schoper, The Name Books, Chur 2015; Englisch: ISBN 978-3- 906313-02-3, 72 pages
  • Olgiati’s Architecture of the Future Anterior – Passage of the Virtual into the Actual, by Ruo Jia, M.Arch. Thesis, Advisor: K. Michael Hays, Harvard GSD Spring 2015, Englisch: ISBN 978-1-32- 070502-8, 168 pages
  • The Images of Architects, Edited by Valerio Olgiati, completely redisigned new edition, The Name Books, Chur 2015, English: ISBN 978-3-906313-11-9, 432 pages
  • The Images of Architects, Edited by Valerio Olgiati, Quart Verlag GmbH, Luzern 2013, English: ISBN 978-3-03761-069-5, 424 pages
  • a+u Nr. 507: Valerio Olgiati, Editor: A+U Publishing Co. Ltd. 2012, Tokyo, No. 12:12 (507), Japan December 2012; Japanese a. English: ISBN 4910019731221 02381, 128 pages
  • World Architecture, „Valerio Olgiati: Hello China“, Tsinghua University, Beijing, Nr. 266, Aug. 2012; Chinese and English ISSN 1002-4832, 84 pages
  • VALERIO OLGIATI AT THE MUSEUM / ヴァレリオ・オルジャティ展 Editor: Hosaka Kenjiro, MOMAT, The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Japan, 2011-2012; Japanese and English ISBN 978-4-9902409-3-6, 40 pages
  • A Lecture by Valerio Olgiati, Birkhäuser Verlag AG Basel, Basel 2011, 6 issues each in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese, English ISBN 978-3-0346-0783-4, 108 pages
  • Ein Vortrag von Valerio Olgiati, German: ISBN 978-3-0346-0782-7, 108 pages
  • Una conferencia de Valerio Olgiati, Spanisch: ISBN 978-3-0346- 0787-2, 108 pages
  • Une conférence de Valerio Olgiati, Französisch: ISBN 978-3-0346- 0784-1, 108 pages
  • Una conferenza di Valerio Olgiati, Italienisch: ISBN 978-3-0346- 0785-8, 108 pages
  • ヴァレリオ ・ オルジャティ 講演録, Japanisch: ISBN 978-3-0346-0786-5, 108 pages
  • Valerio Olgiati, Weber Auditorium Plantahof, Landquart Grisons Building Department, Chur 2011, English: ISBN 978-3-9523831-5-5, 24 pages Valerio Olgiati, Hörsaal Weber Plantahof Landquart, Hochbauamt Graubünden, German: ISBN 978-3-9523831-4-8, 24 pages
  • Valerio Olgiati, Parliament Entrance Chur, Grisons Building Department, Chur 2011, 4 issues each in English, German, Italian and Romansh; English: ISBN 978-3-9523831-3-1, 24 pages
  • Valerio Olgiati, Zugang Grosser Rat Chur, Hochbauamt Graubünden, German: ISBN 978-3-9523831-0-0, 24 pages
  • Valerio Olgiati, Accesso Gran Consiglio Coira, Ufficio edile dei Grigioni, Italian: ISBN 978-3-9523831-1-7, 24 pages
  • Valerio Olgiati Access Cussegl Grond Cuira Uffizi da construcziun auta dal Grischun, Romantsch: ISBN 978-3-9523831-2-4, 24 pages
  • EL CROQUIS Nr 156, Valerio Olgiati 1996 - 2011, croquis edotorial Madrid 2011, Spanish and English; ISSN 0212-5633 / ISBN: 978-84-88386-65-6; 215 pages
  • D’arco Magazine, Valerio Olgiati monograph special edition, Matosinhos, Portugal, D’arco Editions, Matosinhos, Portugal, 2010, Portuguese and English: ISSN 1646-950X, 236 pages
  • Dado, Built and Inhabited by Rudolf Olgiati and Valerio Olgiati, edited by Selina Walder, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 2010; ISBN english: 978-3-0346-0430-7, ISBN German: 978-3-0346-0375-1, 100 pages
  • The Significance of the Idea in the Architecture of Valerio Olgiati, Die Bedeutung der Idee in der Architektur von Valerio Olgiati, Text in German and English by Markus Breitschmid, Verlag Niggli AG, 2009, ISBN 978-3-7212-0676-0, 88 pages
  • VALERIO OLGIATI, edited by Laurent Stalder, Texts by Mario Carpo, Bruno Reichlin and Laurent Stalder, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln 2008 (1st Edition) / Quart Verlag, Luzern 2010 (2nd edition); ISBN German 978-3-03761-031- 2, ISBN English 978-3-03761-030-5, 192 pages
  • K+N House at Wollerau - Valerio Olgiati, Architecture Case Study No. 10, Editors: Erik Stange, Markus Breitschmid, Corporis, Zürich 2009, English: ISBN 978-0-9802-2749-9, 36 pages
  • House for a Musician - Valerio Olgiati, Architecture Case Study No. 3, Editors: Jeremy Keagy, Markus Breitschmid, Corporis, Zürich 2009, English: ISBN 978-0-9802274-4-4, 36 pages
  • House for a Musician, Atelier Bardill by Valerio Olgiati, Edition Dino Simonett, 2007, ISBN 987-3-905562-54-5, 64 pages
  • Valerio Olgiati, Conversation with Students, Edited by Markus Breitschmid, Virginia Tech Architecture Publications, USA, 2007, ISBN 978-0-9794296-3-7, 63 pages
  • 2G, Valerio Olgiati, Gustavo Gili Barcelona, n.37, 2006, ISBN 978-84-252-2088-3,143 pages
  • Valerio Olgiati, PLAN 1:100, Edition Dino Simonett, 2004, ISBN 3-905562-13-8, 64 pages
  • Valerio Olgiati, Das Gelbe Haus, Kunsthaus Bregenz, archiv kunst architektur, Werkdokumente 19, 2000, Verlag Gerd Hatje, ISBN 3-7757-1004-3, 82 pages
  • 14 student projects with Valerio Olgiati 1998 - 2000, Quart Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-907631-04-8, 66 pages
  • VALERIO OLGIATI, Das Gelbe Haus, catalog, exhibition at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, May 28. - July 15 1999, gta Verlag, ETHZ, ISBN 3-85676-091-1, 18 pages
  • Valerio Olgiati, PASPELS, Edition Dino Simonett, 1998, ISBN 3- 9521375-5-3, 65 pages