Casa Lago

Location: Morcote, Lake Lugano, Switzerland
Year: 2023
Type: New house
Area: 420 m²
Client: Private
Status: Completed 2023

A house with glass balconies on a stone base at the edge of the lake, lit at dusk below wooded mountains

A house that steps down to the water on a stone base, with a glass balcony on every floor and every room turned to the lake.

Materials

Ticino gneiss, split face
Grey fibre-cement cladding
Smoked oak
Bronze-anodised aluminium

The site falls eleven metres from the road to the shore. The house follows it down: a heavy base of local stone at the water, and two lighter floors above, each with a balcony the full width of the house.

Inside, the walls stay grey and quiet and leave the colour to the lake. At dusk the jetty lights come on first, and the house is the last thing to disappear from the far shore.

A lit jetty leading to a small glass pavilion on the water at nightfall, with mountains on both sides — Fig. 02The jetty and boathouse at nightfall

A long grey living room with a low sofa, a dark wall with a light slot and a glazed end wall to the garden — Fig. 03Living room on the lower floor

The same living room seen from the corner, with a modular sofa and a low dark table — Fig. 04The same room towards the garden

The upper floor is one room from end to end. A single pane of glass, three metres high, closes the end wall and frames the hills on the far side of the lake.

An upper living room with a long curved sofa and a full-height window onto green hills — Fig. 05Upper floor, looking across the lake · Frameless glazing, 3.20 m