The a25 architects‘ studio – founded in 2018 by brothers Francesco and Paolo Manzoni – has renovated a family home located in a small out-of-time village on the high banks of Lake Como, transforming it into a holiday home.
The building is located in a place where one can slow down and find oneself outside the daily routine, a village that still preserves many original and typological aspects of historical architecture, a place where time seems to have stopped.
The dwelling is located on the ground floor of a 1950s building and was initially divided up in a rigid manner, hiding the historical nature of the building. Today, the project takes advantage of the existing large rooms and combines two of them to create a new, spacious room that becomes an open space for the whole family to gather.
Two rooms relate to it through the two historic doors, this is where relatives and friends will be received, the master room is instead identified with a new door and also directly 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.
A few targeted interventions characterise the renovation: sandstone-coloured resin flooring, a rough plaster for the masonry is the backdrop for the new, custom-designed, exposed copper system, and finally a fixed masonry element in the centre of the large room, the kitchen.
Each room has its own bathroom and is therefore designed with its own autonomy. The bathrooms are treated with the same material as the floors, which also goes on the walls, thus defining a new identity with respect to the other rooms in the house.
The kitchen is made of cement and solid worked wood, which defines the decorations on the doors, and in a green aniline colour to recall the wooded landscape surrounding the village.
The house houses much of the historic furniture, some of the most important family mementos, which coexist and dialogue with the new design.
The only new and fixed element is the kitchen, while the furniture around it can change, adapting to the needs the house will have during the period in which it will be lived in.
For more information visit www.a25architetti.it.
CREDITS
Project: the house of memories on Lake Como
Studio: a25architetti – Francesco and Paolo Manzoni
Construction company: Como Contract s.r.l.
Location: Lake Como, Italy
Year: 2023
Photographs: Marcello Mariana
