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Ein wunderbarer Garten verbindet die Sempervilla von 1864 und den 2004 eröffneten Roccolo von Miller & Maranta. • A wonderful garden connects the Semper Villa (1864) and the Roccolo by Miller & Maranta, opened in 2004.

T he trip from Zurich across the Julier Pass and the
Maloja Pass took three and a half hours. Now we
are welcomed by the friendly voices and faces of Siska
Willaert and Arnout Hostens, our hosts for the next few
days. Yesterday night they showed us our rooms before
they disappeared without further ado. The house will Weitere Informationen unter
www.varicor.com
be ours for the next few days!

The Director of Customs and his poetessa
Vielfalt aus einem Guss.
ETH Zurich has been using Villa Garbald as a seminar
and workshop centre for 15 years. Villa Garbald is a
work of the famous architect and architectural theorist
Mit überragender Mineralwerkstoff-Kompetenz ist VARICOR der anerkannte Spezialist für
Gottfried Semper; his only one south of the Alps! When
individuelle Formgebung im Nass- und Sanitär-Bereich. Unsere Expertise in der Gusstechnik
he was commissioned in 1862, he had been a professor sorgt dafür, dass unsere Kunden bei VARICOR finden, was sie sich wünschen: Planungssicherheit
in Zurich for several years. Although he was very busy, und ein optimales Kosten-Nutzen-Verhältnis bei grenzenloser Gestaltungsfreiheit in Form und Farbe;
he accepted the relatively small project with a small ob bei individuellen Einzelstücken, Kleinserien oder fugenlos verarbeiteten Reihenanlagen.
budget without hesitation. He never visited the site!
On his last trip to Italy, however, he had fallen in love
with the Villa Rustica type, the simple and unadorned
northern Italian country house that fascinates with its
fine proportions, volumes and roof angles. Semper
ignored the fact that this picturesque typology is not ac-
tually suited for the rough environment of Bergell. The
valley is narrow and surrounded by high wooded slo-
pes and sharp rock ridges. The villages extend along
the main road. Castasegna is the last village before the
border to Italy, and Villa Garbald is one of the last hou-
ses on the Swiss side. At least Semper gave the villa the
typical stone roof of its neighbours, which is why later
architectural historians and monument conservators
were all too willing to give the house the hallmark of
regionalist building. They hadn't taken a close look!
Neither did the builder-owners! State Director of Cus-
toms Agostino Garbald and his wife, the writer – or as
they say here: the poetessa – Johanna Garbald-Gredig,
better known under her pseudonym Silvia Andrea,
came from the wet and cold climate of the Upper En-
gadine and probably dreamed of Italy when they heard
the name Castasegna. Semper at least gave them an
Italian home, which they occupied in 1864. Semper
had modelled the pergola on Schinkel's Roman Baths
in Potsdam. Here as there, the horizontal garden ele-