The property to be built on with a steep south-facing slope is located in a villa district west of the historic village centre of Morcote, elevated above Lake Lugano. A short footpath connects to the historic village. The existing villa quarter itself offers hardly any opportunities for building culture.
For this reason, the architecture of the new building has the important task of creating a place of strong identity, with a tangible relationship with the village of Morcote and its surroundings.
Due to a slight inclination in the quarter, the building is precisely aligned with the Italian port town of Porto Ceresio opposite. The almost complete closing of the sides and the complete opening of the outer walls on the top floor at the front create more tangible proximity to the lake and Porto Ceresio on the opposite side than to the neighbourly, arbitrary neighbourhood.
The conception of the residential floor is comparable to the zoom of the camera, which deliberately focuses on what is to be given meaning, but is able to block out others.
In this sense, the house composes a new image of the place through conscious selection, a different one from what was perceived on the undeveloped plot.
The entire living floor is a loggia under a protective roof, inside and outside flow into each other.
From the entrance hall, following the natural outer course of the slope, an inner rectilinear cascade staircase leads past the sleeping floor directly into the uppermost room, the living loggia with kitchen.
The cascade staircase is open up to the roof along its entire length of eight metres, it forms the alley in the house, so to speak, the middle sleeping floor is experienced as an independent cube inserted into the overall volume, the house within the house. The house becomes a village.
Source: Wespi de Meuron Romeo Architects
Pictures: Hannes Henz
