I just really, really want this house. I love it. And this time it actually has nearly nothing to do with the glorious (northern) Italian location. It’s just a graceful, not too big, beautiful house that is just about all I could wish for, that happens to be on the Lago di Como not far from Varenna! Designed by local architect Arturo Montanelli I think this might be as close to the wine concept of terroir as it gets for modernist architecture. But the really remarkable thing about this house is the palette.
The architect, to his eternal credit, implies no hierarchy in his materials, new or traditional. For Montanelli, I suspect, every element – from the local stone, the timber and the traditional polished plaster to the (exquisitely executed) off-form concrete – is there, first and foremost, to do a job. And to do it as well or better than any other material could at this point in time and in this setting. Such a simple message, but one many architects and designers out there could afford to consider more often. The idea that the materials can almost select themselves if we let them is no cop-out. It’s just about putting ego aside and letting context and the lessons of the past have a say. And the results, as in this house, speak for themselves.