Como Lakehouse by Gregorio Pecorelli Studio: Restoring Presence

On the remote shores of Lake Como, located on a steep and wooded slope, a former boatman’s house has been carefully reimagined by Gregorio Pecorelli Studio. Originally built in stone in the early twentieth century and anchored by a vaulted entrance that allowed direct boat access, the building stood as a quiet witness to the rhythms of water and time. Rather than treating the restoration as a replication process, the architect approached the project as a negotiation between preservation and transformation. The result is a rigorous, spatially cohesive home that enhances the site’s tactile memory while embracing contemporary dwelling modes.

Como Lakehouse Technical Information

• Architects^1-6: Gregorio Pecorelli Studio
• Location: Lake Como, Italy
• Gross Area: 300 m² | 3,230 Sq. Ft.
• Original House Year: Early 20^th Century
• Renovation Years: 2022 – 2024
• Photographs: © Francesca Iovene

Gregorio Pecorelli has created a space that respects the original structure while expressing a taste and lifestyle that belong to this era.

– Gregorio Pecorelli Studio Architects

Como Lakehouse Photographs

Architectural Intent and Conceptual Framework

The intervention was commissioned by a foreign client drawn to the house’s authenticity and poetic relationship with the lake. The brief emphasized preserving the building’s external character, the original lime plaster, and the intimacy of its terraced garden. Rather than viewing these constraints as limitations, Pecorelli used them as generative tools. Once used to house a boat, the dock remains physically and symbolically central. The lake enters the architecture visually and physically, with light and reflection penetrating deep into the interiors.

Water becomes a spatial protagonist, transforming the domestic program into a sequence of framed encounters with the landscape. This architectural quietness is not accidental but deliberately constructed. Through precise geometry, reduced formal language, and careful orientation, the project establishes a clear intent: to articulate a domestic retreat that resonates with its environmental and historical context.

Spatial Organization and Formal Strategies

The house unfolds vertically across three levels, each strategically responding to the site’s topography and original footprint. Entry from the land side is indirect and processional, accessed via a steep descent through garden terraces. This path delays the encounter with the lake, preserving a sense of anticipation finally resolved in the main living space.

At the heart of the composition is a central dark timber structure that anchors the interior program. On the ground level, it houses the kitchen and technical spaces. Above, it accommodates a guest suite accessed by a spiral staircase seamlessly integrated into the cabinetry. A second spiral staircase, adjacent to the first, descends to the lower level. Here, carved directly into the rock, a study and spa occupy the footprint of the old dock, engaging the site’s original infrastructure with renewed purpose. The resort features a Jacuzzi that faces the lake, creating direct alignment between body, architecture, and landscape.

The main living space is organized around a double-height volume with full-height walls that open onto the lake. The spatial strategy is one of reduction and clarity. By removing the previous interior subdivisions and opening the ceiling, Pecorelli introduces a vertical rhythm that complements the horizontality of the water beyond. This space is not monumental, but grounded and precise, where material surfaces guide movement and perception.

Como Lakehouse Construction Logic

Material selection follows a logic of continuity and local reference. The ceiling is clad in burnt wood, exposing the timber structure and visually emphasizing the depth of the roof plane. The floor comprises 10 by 10 centimeter stone tiles, a nod to the humble flooring traditions of regional dwellings. These tactile surfaces allow light to perform across textures rather than shapes, enriching the spatial experience through tone and reflection.

Walls and curtains are rendered in a unified, earthy palette, maintaining visual consistency across surfaces. Linen fabrics contrast gently with the dark timber overhead, while stone and wood recur in bathrooms and the spa, reinforcing a language of sensorial depth.

Furniture plays a supporting but significant role. Local artisans fabricated custom-designed built-ins using traditional methods, aligning with the architectural ethos of restraint and permanence. Vintage pieces from Ico and Luisa Parisi, Lina Bo Bardi, and George Nakashima, as well as works by Gio Ponti and Dries Van Noten, form a layered interior landscape that reflects the client’s art collection and Pecorelli’s curatorial sensibility. These selections act not as stylistic gestures but as fragments of design history woven into the present narrative.

Contextual Resonance and Architectural Reflection

The Como Lakehouse is not a project of spectacle. It avoids theatricality in favor of intimacy, and it refrains from architectural gestures that would dominate the landscape. Instead, it seeks equilibrium with its surroundings. The decision to preserve the original envelope and the dock’s vaulted entrance is not a nostalgic one, but a recognition of the site’s latent architectural intelligence.

This restoration moves beyond the binary of old and new. It presents a careful exploration of thresholds between interior and exterior, above and below, past and present. The house becomes a space of suspension, not just in its physical setting above the lake but in its temporal character. It suspends time, inviting slowness, and offering a spatial counterpoint to the accelerated conditions of contemporary life.

Como Lakehouse Plans

Como Lakehouse Image Gallery

About Gregorio Pecorelli Studio

Gregorio Pecorelli Studio, founded in 2021 by architect Gregorio Pecorelli, a Milan-educated professional with experience at Powerhouse Company and Vincent Van Duysen, is based in Gio Ponti’s Casa Sissa in Milan. The studio employs a rigorous, analytical approach to architecture, seeking simplicity and coherence across projects that range from private residences to public buildings in Italy and the Netherlands.

Credits and Additional Notes

1. Custom-Made Furniture: Rabatto Srl
2. Lighting Consultant and Supplier: Light Center
3. Wood Veneers: Alpi Spa
4. Dolomia Stone: Sevis Srl
5. Interior Plaster: Matteo Brioni Srl
6. Faucets: CEA Design