A bright future in Biasca

From arms to art: a semantic transition appears to be the guiding idea behind the project for the former arsenal in Biasca. We’re talking about high-level art, of “powerful” art in the Riviera district. Biasca is the capital of the Regione Tre Valli (Three Valley Region), a town around which we can see dwarf palm trees, typical of the Mediterranean and quite unexpected here at an altitude of 300 m and at the foothills of alpine peaks.

Even in winter, the backdrop of the granite mountains which dominate the village is a soothing backdrop of fir and larch trees on which suddenly, while walking along via ai Grotti, a group of buildings appear drawing one’s attention. Solid structures in stone and wood, both austere and welcoming, with simple and flat rooftops. The architects of the time (we are talking about the 1930s) were Rino Tami, accompanied by two upcoming names of that period in Ticino, Bruno Brunoni and Augusto Jäggli. Together they created a design of functional elegance for what was intended to house an arsenal. The wood-framed windows along with the long balconies punctuated by horizontal slats are evocative of a past era. It was built on land donated by the Patriziato (local landowners) and given by the Municipality to the Confederation to be officially opened around 1940, when the worrisome winds of war in Europe were no longer a remote hypothesis, but a brutal, solid certainty. The buildings were first used at the beginning of the Second World War: their creation responded to a specific political strategy, emphasizing the need for safe deposits in which to store weapons. In addition to providing work for many families in Biasca, the Arsenal welcomed many generations of Ticinese during their military service: they went there to get their rifles, uniforms and small ammunition.

The buildings contained not only «soldier’s equipment» but also military vehicles. This, in essence, is the past. Today, the compound is eyeing for a transition from defensive weapons to something that we would like to think of as peaceful and universal: in administrative jargon they call it «change of intended use», a change that however has an «explosive» potential, so to say. We are referring to the development of twenty thousand square meters on which stand ten buildings, each with floor surfaces of two hundred square meters. Considered a «cantonal cultural asset», what is now the former military Arsenal was active until 2004 and since 2008 the ownership has passed from Armasuisse to the Municipality. Hub interviewed Maura Mossi Nembrini - architect and director of the Technical Office of the Municipality of Biasca, to understand the plans for the Arsenal and its most recent history: «After the closing of the military facility, the Municipality of Biasca, supported by a petition signed by hundreds of citizens and endorsed by the Patronage, the Council of State and the National Councillors of Canton Ticino, engaged in intense negotiations with Bern to purchase the property. The Municipality of Biasca had the need to build a multi-purpose service center for firefighters, ambulances, civil protection, warehouses, museum and exhibition spaces. Hence, it expressed the will to purchase the Arsenal with the intention of using its structures as a service center».

The transaction was completed in 2008. The next step was the change of intended use. «The final planning arrived in 2018», continues Mossi Nembrini, «in the meantime, alternatives were found for the headquarters of the civil services, with significant investments. At that point the Municipality found itself the owner of a complex that was in urgent need of conservative maintenance of the buildings, especially the flat roofs». This is exactly the moment to intervene, but it understandably happens that there is a tendency to give greater attention to the financial plans of municipalities to projects that concern primary services, at the cost of cultural initiatives. A solution was found in 2019, during a breakthrough meeting which turned out to be decisive for the aforementioned semantic transition from arms to arts. This was the moment when the Municipality met the Museum of Cultures in Lugano. «The contact with MUSEC was crucial», continues Nembrini. «The Municipality proposed to bring the sculptures of the Asuriní, the Brazilian indios of the Amazon forest, to the museum in Lugano. The ceramics were on permanent display at the Casa Cavalier Pellanda, one of three cultural jewels of Biasca, alongside the St. Peter and Paul’s church and the former Arsenal.

The Casa Cavalier Pellanda is a 16th century building, a protected cultural asset, restored in the 1980s by the Swiss studio Bruno Reichlin and Fabio Reinhart. It is now used as an exhibition space but the interesting collection of sculptures was not adequately displayed. Francesco Paolo Campione, director of the MUSEC, had a stroke of genius upon visiting Biasca when he saw the area around the former Arsenal: that symbolic place could satisfy a need felt strongly in Canton Ticino. To create a repository where works of art could be stored, which would be open to private collections and other cultural initiatives. Looking to the near future, one can understand the potential of the spaces and envisage a project that will benefit the whole area. Art, culture, education, research and experimentation... An immediate analogy comes to mind with a similar initiative: the Fondation Luma in Arles, the creative campus designed by Frank O. Gehry in the heart of Provence. It is worth adding that Biasca has the good fortune of being strategically located, only a half-hour drive from Lugano and with a convenient exit from the Gotthard motorway. Despite the fact that the project is still being defined, it has great potential and is addressed to many different sectors. «For this reason, we presented it not only to the Ticino Museums but also to the State Archives, to the Center of Dialectology and Ethnography and to the Cantonal Library, all services of the Canton of Ticino that have archives and repositories. Even the Foundation «Archivi degli Architetti Ticinesi» (Archives of Ticino Architects) is searching for new places and in the meantime has entrusted us with the library of the architect Tita Carloni. Our idea would also be to create coworking spaces in the impressive administrative building of the Arsenale, with a strong association to the world of art that would include offices, meeting rooms, training rooms, laboratories for conservation, restoration, quarantine and transport preparation». Therefore, it is now essential to understand how to intervene on the different buildings, starting with the administrative building, that will be the heart of the activities related to the deposit. Mossi Nembrini concludes: «The Municipality of Biasca has applied to the Canton for funding. We have turned to the Ente Regionale per lo Sviluppo Bellinzonese e Valli (ERS-BV) which has been accompanying and supporting us to realise this initiative.

We believe that the project has a value that goes well beyond the town of Biasca and that the former Arsenal corresponds to all criteria and has the right credentials to access financial and political support. On January 20, the Board of Directors of the ERS-BV endorsed the project, stating that if completed, it will have a positive economic and social impact on the entire region and, probably, the Canton and the rest of the country as well, thanks to important partnerships with private and public partners. In March, the project was submitted to the Strategic Group in charge of the regional economic policy, which includes three State Councillors of the Departments of Finance and Economy, of the Territory, and of the Institutions, as well as a high official of the Department of Education, Culture and Sport, the presidents of the Regional Development Agencies and the representatives of tourism and economic associations, thus warranting for full exposure. This engagement will enable the intital architectural and expert feasibility assessments to be financed and the business organization to be implemented. A series of discussions with important private partners that have identified the «compound» of Biasca as a privileged place for their investments are also ongoing: amongst them a top-level multinational logistics firm. But this is a significant story, a very significant story indeed, which we plan to write about in the future issues of Hub.