Archi di Luce Villa 7

The large houses are part of an extraordinary architectural and landscape design ensemble by architecture practice Herzog & de Meuron, perfectly integrated into the historic park of Villa Favorita, Castagnola, once the family residence of Thyssen-Boromisza. Castagnola is one of the most beautiful villa neighbourhoods in Switzerland.

With Archi di Luce, the architects have created a villa ensemble for a sublime, holistic and resolutely contemporary lifestyle. The architecture conveys harmony and movement. No design stunts or status signalling. Concrete, sensual building culture in perfection - nothing else. Every detail has been conceived and realised with architectural precision, without losing sight of the sensational overall effect.

The continuum of thoroughly composed spatial worlds is given a distinctly southern character by round and semi-circular cut-outs for atriums, arches and terraces, which incorporate the lake and mountain landscape. For all its privacy, the spacious villa offers the happy feeling of being at one with the place, the time, the architecture and yourself – in context rather than splendid isolation.

Cultivated and concrete. Surprisingly intense. This architecture is not static – it moves. It amazes. It protects. It opens up. Those who live in the house move effortlessly as if in a dream: Herzog & de Meuron planned exactly how to move around the villa: With a promenade architecturale that allows us to stroll through the house as if in a dream. The scenographically charged spatial continuum fascinates with its infinity, which is emphasised by the impression of being embedded in the landscape. The walk through the spacious and always focussed building offers choreographed attractions. The semi-circular and circular vertical and horizontal incisions and arches form courtyards and terraces, creating changing impressions of light and landscape.

During the promenade architecturale through the building to the roof terrace, atmospheres condense - and then evaporate. Experiences and feelings are evoked. The staircases to the floors, sometimes wide, sometimes narrow and winding, are inspired by the village staircases of old Castagnola. If you want to speed up the promenade, take the lift. The lift is inconspicuously integrated on each floor so that you hardly notice it. The interior, exterior and spaces in between create a spatial experience with a symphonic feel.

The glazed atrium is an incision through the entire above-ground structure. Through various interior and exterior spaces it creates visual references to the mountains, Lago di Lugano and the horizon, which in the evening light is imaginatively linked with the Mediterranean: we look south-west towards Italy. The teak planks of the atrium are accessible from the living floors. Welcome on board.

You enter Via Cortivo, the most elegant part of the historic residential area. Old cedar trees line the narrow cul-de-sac, absorbing noise, and light. The entrance doors to each villa are set into the long, sculptural fence made of welded copper squares. You enter the property on the hillside and find yourself in a dense jungle of holm oaks, cedars, cypresses and evergreen magnolias. A footpath supported by stilt-like posts leads down into the ravine to the entrance of the villa. The intensive planting in the steep topography is inspired by the trees and plants of the Mediterranean islands.

Access to the large car lift from the elegant Via Cortivo. A final view of the lake. After the short, silent lift ride, you find yourself in an indefinably long subterranean space that forms a gentle curve – as sacred as the nave of a cathedral. V-shaped expressive columns, large exposed concrete cylinders in the ceiling, that make room for the soil of the pine trees at garden level: Once again, Herzog & de Meuron have created a surprising attraction. Gettings out of the car, we notice that the entire garage floor is made of elegant, light-coloured terrazzo. The owners' four- and two-wheeled vehicles are parked directly at the underground entrances to the villas. The frames of the tall brass doors reach up to the ceiling.