RESIDENCE AU LAC
- emilio ambasz
- Oct 20, 2023
- 1 min read
LUGANO, SWITZERLAND (1983)
The terrace of Residence au Lac, a 1950s resort hotel converted into luxury apartments, overlooks Lake Lugano. Visible from the lakefront avenue and gardens, it commands a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains. This view of mountains, sky and clouds is recreated theatrically on the terrace and in the building's lobby. It is composed of rough-finished granite slabs alternating with strips of polished white Carrara marble. These marble strips emerge at irregular intervals, forming jagged shapes that echo the mountains on the horizon. Inside the lobby, the walls are painted a gradient blue suggestive of the distant sky. The marble landscape takes on a surrealistic air under translucent silk 'clouds' hanging from the blue top lit ceiling and spaced at intervals corresponding to those of the marble forms. Architecture, sculpture and landscape merge into a dreamlike whole.
