Bianchi House, Villa in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland

Bianchi House is a villa with a square tower shape, each side measuring ten meters, with vertical elements creating connection to the surrounding mountain landscape. The structure is reached via an eighteen-meter metal bridge that runs from the mountainside to the upper entrance area.

Mario Botta and Carlo Bianchi were childhood friends; Carlo and his fiancée Leontina commissioned a family house on their 850 m² plot at the foot of San Giorgio Monde above Lake Lugano. Because the wooded slope was steep, Botta designed the house starting from the roof. Completed in 1973, it is listed as a class A Swiss cultural property of national significance.

Mario Botta and Carlo Bianchi were childhood friends, and the commission came from Carlo and his fiancée Leontina for a family house on their 850 m² plot at the foot of San Giorgio above Lake Lugano. Because the wooded slope was so steep, Botta designed the house starting from the roof. The red-painted metal walkway leads straight to the top floor, where the entrance, a studio and a covered terrace sit.

Access is via a small path and a long metal footbridge painted red, which leads directly to the top floor housing the entrance, a studio and a covered terrace. From there a stairwell serves the lower floors, so visitors move downward through the five levels rather than climbing. The site lies on a steep wooded slope above Lake Lugano, at the foot of San Giorgio.

The house was deliberately designed so that density decreases as one moves upward, creating interior terraces that allow light and air to pass through. Each of the four facades is shaped differently and responds to specific views of Lake Lugano and surrounding forests.