The ground floor of a 1950s building is being reimagined as a family holiday home by a25architetti. Located in a small village on Lake Como, the home is designed on a human scale and shaped to reflect the building’s historical character, the rhythms of rural life, and the needs and wishes of a holiday stay.
In a small village out of time, on the boundaries of Lake Como, a family home has been renovated as a holiday home, a place where you can slow down and take a break from the daily routine. Here, time seems to stand still, people know each other personally and everything is slower. This village still retains many original and typical aspects of historical architecture, a place on a human scale.
The house is located on the ground floor of a 1950s building, which was originally used after the First World War as an inn and then converted into a house in the following years.
Its heir decides to give new life to the dwelling as a holiday home but mostly as a family home where to stay during the summer and on special occasions, where each family member can have their own room. Old and new memories can then coexist.
The house was initially divided in a rigid way, thus hiding the historical nature of the building.
Today the project takes advantage of the existing large rooms – typical of 1950s buildings – and combines two of them to create a new, large room that becomes an open space to welcome the whole family altogether.
As in the houses back in the days, each room overlooks the large space, there is no filter, no separation.
Two rooms relate to this large space through two historic doors, where relatives and friends will be received; the master room is instead identified with a new door and also overlooks the living room. From here there is access to a small garden with two old birch trees that provide shade for the outdoor space.
Few, targeted interventions characterize the renovation: sandstone-colored resin flooring, a rough plaster for the masonry provides a backdrop for the new customized copper planting, and finally a fixed masonry element in the center of the large room, the kitchen.
Each room has its own private bathroom and is therefore designed as independent; the bathrooms are treated with the same material as the floors, which also goes up on the walls, thus defining a new identity, different from the other rooms in the house. The kitchen is made of concrete and solid machined wood, which defines the decorations on the doors, and in green aniline stain to recall the surrounding landscape of Lake Como.
The house accommodates the majority of the historical furniture; some of the most important family memories – an old sideboard, a tailor’s table, an antique radio – coexist with the new design.
Few precise elements build the space. The only new and fixed furniture element is the kitchen, made of concrete, a unique piece, an architectural object that measures the space. The furniture around it, on the other hand, can change, adapting to the needs and uses the house will have.
Drawings
Facts & Credits
Title The house of memories on Lake Como
Typology Architecture, Residence
Location Lake Como, Italy
Status Completed, 2023
Architecture a25architetti – Francesco e Paolo Manzoni
Photography Marcello Mariana
Text by the author
Take a look at another project by a25architetti, The Old Wine Press, here!
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