Designed his first house at age 16, although no-one mentions if it was built. Studied at the Liceo Artistico in Milan and the Istituto Universitario di Architettura in Venice. His ideas were influenced by Le Corbusier, Carlo Scarpa, Louis Kahn. He opened his own practice in 1970 in Lugano.
His style is stark, strong, and geometric; his buildings are often made of brick. His trademark style can be seen widely in Switzerland particularly the Ticino region and also in the Mediatheque in Villeurbanne (1988), a cathedral near Evry (1995), and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art or SFMoMA (1994).