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SERIEN IKONEN BEWOHNEN • LIVING IN ICONS

ment serves to soften and visually balance the vertical line of the main building. At the
same time, the pergola establishes a threshold space between the street and the house;
between public and private spheres. Semper has designed it wide enough so that tables
and chairs can be moved outside and the pergola becomes the actual centre of life in
the summer. We, too, will sit here during the day, protected from the sun by the foliage
of the vines above and with a view of the mountains framed by the mighty pillars.

Italian Rustica in the Swiss mountains

The rural origin of the house is much more evident in the interior than in the exterior.
You won't find large, prestigious parlours. The living and dining rooms on the ground
floor are of modest dimensions; almost petty considering the status of the owner. Their
walls are partly panelled or covered with fabric. As in all important rooms of the house,
the ceilings are adorned with fine ornamental drawings and decorative paintings. Obvio-
usly, the budget didn't suffice for real stucco! The director's study a large parlour and the
master bedroom with an adjoining closet were located on the first floor. The second floor
accommodated two bedrooms and living rooms connected by another closet for the ex-
pected offspring as well as two small attic rooms. From storey to storey the decoration of
the rooms was reduced! Another special feature was the open attic, a so-called "Solaio".
In Italian Rusticas, this room served as drying loft and storage. In the humid, alpine cli-
mate of Castasegna, however, the area is unlikely to have been used for similar purposes.
Die Zimmer im Roccolo sind Klosterzellen nachempfunden. • The Roccolo rooms are modelled on Monk's cells. Semper and the Garbald Couple were probably mainly interested in the external effect
of the deep black attic openings. Roughly finished granite floor slabs laid in the vestibule,
the staircase, the anterooms upstairs and the kitchen also match the Rustica typology.
They lend Villa Garbald the character of a country house in spite of its refinements.
Ideal conditions for living and working

In the early 2000s, the architects Miller & Maranta were commissioned with the renova-
Vom Kaminzimmer des Roccolo schaut man nach Italien. • The fireplace room in the Roccolo faces Italy. tion and expansion of Villa Garbald. Since then, the villa has shone in its former splen-
dour. The original colour scheme was reconstructed and the main living spaces returned
to their original condition. The living and dining rooms on the ground floor now serve as
a parlour and library. The upper rooms were converted into four spacious guest rooms,
each with its own bathroom. The biggest intervention: the former washhouse and the
pantry were connected to form a new, elongated dining room with a very high ceiling
and a huge wooden table. Two sliding glass doors open the room towards the adjoining
terrace. From here, narrow, weathered stairs lead to the upper part of the garden, where
Miller & Maranta built a modern guesthouse called Roccolo. The building fits into the en-
vironment much better than one might think at first! On the one hand, the architects use
the tower shape to refer to similarly tall and narrow buildings in the surrounding area;
on the other hand, the coarse-grained exposed aggregate concrete is compatible with the
stone roofs of the neighbouring buildings when viewed from a distance. Inside, the au-
ratic residential tower provides eleven single and double rooms, each with ensuite bath-
room, along a spiral staircase. Together with the rooms of the Semper Villa and the large
garden, the ensemble offers ideal conditions for living and working together.

Lageplan (1 Villa Garbald, 2 Roccolo, 3 Gartenhaus) • Site plan

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060 • AIT 10.2019