The house was built 125 years ago as a simple Ticino house on a terraced vineyard. Its past, with various changes in use, renovations, and alterations, has shaped it and given it its unique appearance today.

The Ticino house, a traditional building type characteristic of southern Ticino, is a family home. Its defining features are a low hipped roof, solid walls made of gneiss or granite, a compact, elongated structure, and multiple storeys. These characteristics have been preserved in our Villetta to this day and remain clearly visible.

A traditional Ticino house was not built by academic architects but by local master builders and craftsmen. The building materials—natural stone, lime mortar, wood, handcrafted stone slabs or bricks—came from the surrounding area. Construction was robust, slow, and entirely manual. Inside today’s Villetta, the dimensions, the massive stone walls, and the hand‑hewn roof beams from the nearby chestnut forests still tell the story of this traditional craftsmanship.

There is hardly any information about the history of the house before the Second World War. When we bought the house, it had two entrances. This seems to prove that the former winegrower’s cottage was, at one time, divided into two small homes.

In the after-war period, a local builder purchased the building, which had been divided into two parts, and converted it into his home. He reunited the two parts of the house to restore it to its original form and added a double-storey loggia and a cellar.

As a result, the house underwent a fundamental change in both, its function and its appearance. The former farmhouse became a comfortable residence; the ‘Tessinerhaus’ became a ‘Villetta’.

The term ‘Villetta’ refers to a type of family home that emerged in southern Ticino in the post-war period, with the primary focus on sunlight and beautiful views. Villetta houses were, and continue to be, built in locations offering panoramic views. They are 2–3-storey buildings, usually facing south-west to south, featuring viewing terraces and balconies. This new type of house, which draws its inspiration not from regional tradition but from modern architecture, often combines functional design with Mediterranean elements. The vast majority of ‘Villetta’ properties are new builds that have been constructed over the last fifty years.

The master Builder took a different approach with his ‘Villetta’. He bought an existing, old house and skilfully converted it to suit his purposes. As the old ‘Ticino house’ was very solidly built and situated in a location with a unique view, it was ideally suited for conversion into a ‘Villetta’. What was missing were the viewing terraces.

The architect added it in the form of a two-storey loggia. As two-storey loggias had previously been found only on patrician houses, he thereby gave his villetta a prestigious air. By omitting the traditional round arches, he simultaneously created a modern, bright and airy style of loggia.

In this way, he transformed the ‘Tessinerhaus’ – without destroying it – into a ‘Villetta’. With its double loggia, the house was extended during the warmer months of the year to include two sunny yet rain-protected viewing balconies, each measuring 19.5 square metres. Inside, the builder completely gutted the old building and, using thin partition walls, transformed it into a compact 6-room house. A brick fireplace was installed in the dining room, which necessitated an external chimney on the north-west facade.

After we were fortunate enough to acquire the house, it was completely refurbished, restored and redesigned in 2017/18 on our behalf by the renowned Ticino architect Guy Muntwyler. The electrical system, the water and drainage pipes, and the heating system were completely replaced. A new central heating system, powered by an air-to-water heat pump, was installed throughout the house.

The architect left the main structure and the roof unchanged, but made significant alterations to the façade, which were necessary because of the building’s use as a ‘Villetta’. The most significant of these alterations was the opening up of the façade with new floor-to-ceiling French doors featuring wooden frames and double-glazed panes, as well as the installation of double doors in the loggia openings. This flooded the interior with light and allowed the view to be fully appreciated from inside the house.

The modernisation of the technical installations was accompanied by a comprehensive refurbishment and redesign of the building. The ‘Baumeister-Villetta’ was transformed into an ‘architect-designed house’. The term refers to a style of design and construction that is characteristic of academic architecture. An ‘architect-designed house’ is a building that is individually designed and planned by an architect on behalf of the ‘client’ and built under the architect’s supervision..

Architect Muntwyler completed the transformation of the ‘Tessinerhaus’ into a ‘Villetta’, a project begun by the local builder. Today’s Villetta is a carefully designed new house that has been skilfully integrated into the walls of the old ‘Tessinerhaus’. During this second phase of renovation and redesign, the remaining structural elements of the former ‘Tessinerhaus’ were largely preserved. Muntwyler skilfully integrated the existing building fabric into his overall functional and aesthetic concept.

Muntwyler left the loggia porch – which had been built very solidly by the master builder and was also aesthetically pleasing – virtually unchanged. By aligning the house’s window openings with the loggia’s pillars, he brought a harmonious balance to the façade, thereby enhancing the building’s prestigious appearance.

Muntwyler also created a well-thought-out layout inside the house. On the ground floor are the front door and an entrance hall with a cloakroom and a guest toilet. In the 2.80 m high ground-floor room, with its hand-hewn chestnut beams, he positioned the new kitchen as if it were a kiosk. At the front, together with the dining room, it forms an open-plan kitchen-diner with views of the Tresatal valley and the garden.

At the rear of the ‘kitchen kiosk’ is a spacious living room featuring a fireplace wall designed by the architect, complete with a modern fireplace, as well as a swivelling television set recessed into the wall. Three new floor-to-ceiling double doors with double-glazed panes lead out onto the loggia, flooding the house with light and offering unobstructed views of the countryside.

The spacious layout has also been retained on the upper floor. There are two bedrooms, both with their own en suite bathroom/WC and new double doors with double glazing leading onto the upper loggia. An entrance hall houses the staircase leading to the loft and two fitted wardrobes. One of these contains a new, barely used washing machine, whilst the other is intended for a stick vacuum cleaner and cleaning equipment.

A high standard of finish means above-average quality in the choice of materials, workmanship, comfort and technical fittings. All of this can be found in the Villetta. All rooms, with the exception of the bathrooms and the toilet, have oak parquet flooring. The kitchen is a bespoke design created by the architect. The bathrooms and toilet are fitted with large-format ceramic tiles. Thanks to the reinforced floor between the ground floor and first floor, no impact noise can be heard. Both loggias are fitted with electric, semi-transparent sunblinds. The house is fitted with numerous designer light fittings, some of which are permanently integrated into the architecture, providing bright, warm and dimmable lighting. The windows throughout the house are new, floor-to-ceiling French windows with timber/aluminium frames and double glazing. The ceiling heights are 280 cm on the ground floor and 240 cm on the first floor. The house features several spacious fitted wardrobes and drawer units.

Clearly in the luxury category is the natural, three-layer fine lime plaster with marble dust, which was applied both externally and internally by a specialist firm from the Engadin. Not only is it washable, durable and water-repellent, but it also changes colour within the white-to-yellow spectrum depending on the light. This high-quality plaster lends the house a warm, lively atmosphere inside and a welcoming appearance on the outside, with colours that blend harmoniously with the surroundings. As part of the complete renovation, a new, modern central heating system with an air-to-water heat pump was installed throughout the house. It ensures that the house remains warm even on the coldest winter days.

The house is cool and pleasant in summer and warm and cosy in winter. This is – alongside the new eco-friendly heating system – primarily down to the way it was built. The hipped roof, with its loft which has been fitted with a new, insulated floor, ensures that the bedrooms remain pleasantly cool even on hot days. The loggias also help to achieve this by shielding the interior of the house from direct sunlight without making it appear dark. The solid stone walls and the large French windows with double-glazed panes contribute positively to the indoor climate in both summer and winter.

The ‘Tessinerhaus’, which was initially anonymous, developed its own distinct character over the course of its 125-year history as a result of changes of use, renovations and alterations. The most significant stages of this transformation were its conversion into a ‘Villetta’ and its redesign as an ‘architect-designed house’. The house’s current uniqueness is the result of its history. In our case, this journey saw the ‘anonymous’ winegrower’s cottage evolve into an architecturally unique building in which old and new blend to form a harmonious whole.