Lugano

Studio

We are fourteen people in a former printing works above the lake in Lugano: architects, interior designers and one model maker, who builds every project twice, first in card and then in wood.

An architect drawing a section in pen on tracing paper, with a scale ruler on a dark wooden table
Fig. 01Every project starts by hand
Portrait of Elio Ravasi in a dark jacket against a concrete wall

Founder

Elio Ravasi

Elio grew up in Mendrisio, studied at the Accademia di architettura there and spent eight years in practices in Basel and Milan before coming home to start Albedo in 2009.

He still draws every project by hand before anyone opens a computer, and is on site at least once a week until the keys are handed over.

  • Elio RavasiFounder, architect
  • Nina BächliPartner, interiors
  • Tommaso PedriniPartner, construction

How we work

(05)

  1. 01

    Site

    We visit the site at different hours and in different weather before we draw a line.

  2. 02

    Drawing

    Sketches first, then models: card for the idea, wood and plaster at 1:20 to test the light.

  3. 03

    Detail

    Every junction drawn at full size: where stone meets glass, where oak meets plaster.

  4. 04

    Building

    One of us is on site every week, with builders and makers we have worked with for years.

  5. 05

    Furnishing

    Furniture, lighting and fabric, chosen or made for the house, so it is finished on the day you move in.

A model maker with a beard working on a timber model at a crowded desk
Fig. 02In the model workshop
A white card model of a cantilevered house above a pale blue pool
Fig. 03Study model, 1:50

Materials are chosen at the table next to the drawings, from samples we keep for every project, never from a catalogue alone.

Plans, material swatches and a laptop spread across a white marble desk
Fig. 04Plans and samples on the big table · Sample board, Corso Magenta
Hands drawing with a pen beside a scale ruler on a wooden table
Fig. 05Details are drawn at full size