A particularly pleasing portico, by the Swiss architect Mario Botta, to ease us into the week. The hypnotic space forms part of a unique housing complex in Novazzano, Switzerland, comprising one hundred apartments, a small shopping centre and a spacious courtyard. Botta dreamed up a series of carefully gridded four-storey blocks, rendered in a playfully geometric style reminiscent of postmodern masters The Memphis Group. The complex’s various façades are colour coded—salmon pink for the exterior, ochre for the recessed volumes, and blue for the intermediate service areas—with surprisingly artful results.
