Grotto della Roccia

Enrico Sassi has revamped this historic building, located in Gandría and with privileged views of Lake Lugano, after over a century of abandonment.

Though the building was in a poor state, the Swiss firm proposed to preserve its original appearance as much as possible, and defer to the history and landscape of the spectacular enclave. Intervention would be limited to consolidating what already exists, delicately enlarging the exterior terrace, and internally connecting the three levels with a new staircase.

The three levels are a basement with a barrel vault excavated in the rock, a ground floor, and an upper floor formerly reachable only from outside. Some walls inside were torn down to show the rock of the site and to build the new staircase in exposed reinforced concrete. Everything else has been either left as is or restored.