Letter from Roger M. Kull at Trezzini Conference 2019

The 1^st Academic Trezzini Conference.

St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. April 16, 2019.

Welcome letter from Roger M. Kull, Consul General of Switzerland in St. Petersburg

Dear hosts today — distinguished Heads of the St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering! Dear members of the round table and speakers at this conference! Ladies and gentlemen!

It is certainly a great honor for me personally and for the Consulate General of Switzerland to have the chance to address you today.

And it is certainly an honor for Switzerland and the family of the great architect Domenico Trezzini that this event is named after Domenico Trezzini, born and raised in Astano, a small village in the Italian part of Switzerland. After his studies, probably in Rome, and first assignments as architect in Denmark he was asked by Peter the Great to come to the recently founded city of St. Petersburg where he played a very important role in the development of the new capital of Russia in the years to come.

It is only recently that Trezzini was also discovered and rightly recognized in Switzerland as the outstanding architect he was, joining thus a long list of fellow Swiss that ventured abroad, became famous in their respective field of expertise and many times stayed in their new homeland for the rest of their life.

In his field I’d like to name Le Corbusier, an important architect, designer and artist in the first half of the 20 century but more recently also Mario Botta, who worked with Le Corbusier at the beginning of his career. One icon of his work is the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. Then there are Herzog and de Meuron, who designed and constructed the Olympic Stadium in Bejing, or Roger Diener, who designed the masterplan for the University in the port area of Malmö, only to name a few of them today.

Architecture has always been and will continue to be very important for any city around the world. Professionals, you ladies and gentlemen, have the chance to design and build monuments that many times will be around for decades / centuries to come and add with their features and presence to the uniqueness of the respective settlement.
Therefore I find it extremely important that your trade, together with academia and government representatives involved in new constructions or renovations of existing marvels of architecture sit together like you are about to do it today, exchanging opinions and experiences, building an important connection between the different players in the field and thus hopefully optimizing future joint projects in this unique and beautiful city at the shores of the Neva.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me stop here. I thank you for your attention and wish you all very interesting presentations, exchange of opinions and discussions during today’s event.