A Love for the Valley
My father first came to the Valle Onsernone in the early 1960s. The road was a gravel track, the drop marked only by stone posts.
In the 1970s, my parents rented a house in Berzona every summer. Hiking, swimming in the cold stream, sitting on the veranda in the evening. In autumn, the villages smelled of wood smoke.
The Decision to Build
In the early 1980s, my parents wanted a house of their own in Ticino. Both were doctors with a practice in Zurich. They viewed several properties. None was right. So they built their own.
In 1985, they found the plot on the lower edge of Loco. A terraced vineyard, a view down the valley. They feared a rezoning and quickly looked for an architect.
Music, literature, theatre and architecture were part of their lives. The Ticino School was at its height. They visited houses by Luigi Snozzi and Livio Vacchini and met both several times. Mario Botta was too monumental for my father.
They chose Snozzi. They liked the Bauhaus and its clear design language. And they valued the way he worked with the topography of the valley.
Planning and Construction
Planning began in 1985. The many sketches show how long they wrestled with it. My father wanted a fireplace in the kitchen. Snozzi was firmly against it. Until my father pointed out that old Ticino kitchens had their hearth in exactly that spot. Snozzi gave in.
The clients did not always agree. My father wanted warm oak parquet, my mother consistent black and white. She prevailed. In return, he got the colours in the bedrooms.
They were over fifty when they built the house. Cast-off furniture had no place in their holiday home. They furnished it entirely with Italian design furniture from Knecht Arredamenti in Locarno. They did not go without a dishwasher, washing machine or stereo.
Chance helped during construction. The longest crane jib in Ticino at the time reached all the way into the excavation. That saved expensive helicopter flights.
Opening and Inheritance
In 1986, they celebrated the opening with more than sixty guests. Drinks at the house, dinner at the Ristorante Centovalli in Ponte Brolla, a tour of Monte Verità the next morning.
In 2021, my parents were here for the last time, both over eighty. We had porcini risotto together at the Centovalli. Today they rest in the small cemetery below Berzona.
Now the house belongs to me. My parents built it out of love for this valley. I open it to guests who appreciate good architecture and want to experience it in this beautiful place.
