Archello Awards 2026 · Enter your projects before 30 September 2026
Archello Awards 2026 · Enter your projects before 30 September 2026
Casa Silca
marcello mariana fotografo

Casa Silca

Casa Silca is located in the historic core of the municipality of Gordola, in the Canton of Ticino (Switzerland), an area with a strong architectural identity in terms of both form and materials.

photo_credit marcello mariana fotografo
marcello mariana fotografo

The client's request was to recover the old barn building and make it habitable, in addition to recovering a rustic building.

photo_credit marcello mariana fotografo
marcello mariana fotografo

The intention of our project was to give a new architectural order to the whole area, making the intervention recognisable.

photo_credit marcello mariana fotografo
marcello mariana fotografo

From a planimetric and functional point of view, inside the volumes there are three flats, a new underground garage and a large garden, vegetable orto and fruit trees.

photo_credit marcello mariana fotografo
marcello mariana fotografo

The interior of Casa Silca was designed following a very precise orientation.The choice was to have a small number of materials in order to make the reading of volumes and spaces even clearer.

photo_credit marcello mariana fotografo
marcello mariana fotografo

In the living area the floors are ceramic, while in the sleeping area there is a beautiful oak parquet floor which gives the room a domestic and intimate character.


The client's request was to have more privacy towards his green courtyard, reducing the openings towards it to a minimum. Our idea was to take inspiration from the old barns of the farmhouses in the surroundings of the project area.

photo_credit marcello mariana fotografo
marcello mariana fotografo

Originally, barns had small holes in the façade, usually square in shape, made by alternating the pitch of solid bricks bedded with mortar.

photo_credit marcello mariana fotografo
marcello mariana fotografo

These walls ensured ventilation of the area of the farmstead where the cattle were fed.
The graphic texture we have designed and adopted guarantees excellent privacy but at the same time good ventilation of the interior of the house, creating an evocative interplay of solids and voids.

photo_credit marcello mariana fotografo
marcello mariana fotografo

architecture: Forni & Gueli architetti sagl
photographs: Marcello Mariana

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