A lit jetty leading to a glass pavilion on the lake at nightfall, with mountains on both sides
An indoor pool lined in warm timber, lit by long strips of light along the ceiling
A barrel cellar under rows of funnel-shaped concrete columns
A stone house with shuttered windows on a wooded hillside

Architecture & Interiors

Lugano, Switzerland
46°00′ N, 8°57′ E

Albedo, architecture and interiors in Lugano

A white plaster study model with three tall openings, lit from one side on a black table

The studio

Albedo is the share of light a surface gives back. We design houses, interiors and places to stay around it: stone that holds the warmth of the afternoon, timber that softens the noon, rooms that return what the day gives them.

Elio Ravasi founded the studio in Lugano in 2009. Today we are fourteen architects and interior designers, and one model maker, in a former printing works above the lake.

We take on a handful of projects a year in Ticino, northern Italy and the Alps, and see each one through ourselves, from the first site visit to the last chair.

About the studio
Late sun falling through a slatted screen in stripes across a dark room
Sunlight falling in diagonal bands across a concrete wall

Light is a material

Practice

(04)

  1. 01

    Architecture

    New houses, extensions and small public buildings, from the first site visit to the last inspection.

    A house with glass balconies on a stone base at the edge of the lake
  2. 02

    Interiors

    Rooms planned with the building, not after it: joinery, lighting, stone and fabric drawn by the same hands.

    A plaster niche with floating shelves above a stone bench
  3. 03

    Restoration

    Stone houses, townhouses and farm buildings brought back into use, keeping what the centuries got right.

    An armchair in a deep arched window recess
  4. 04

    Furniture

    Tables, lights and fitted pieces, made with workshops in Ticino and the Brianza for each house.

    Timber loungers on a slate floor beside a pool

Selected
work

All projects (06)
Portrait of Elio Ravasi in a dark jacket against a concrete wall

Founder

“A room is finished when the light has somewhere to land.”

Elio Ravasi, architect
The studio and how we work