Il Sereno: Patricia Urquiola's Interior Landscape on Lake Como
At Il Sereno, the lake is more than a view reserved for the best room. It is the reference around which Patricia Urquiola organised an entire architectural project. Her hotel in Torno, on Lake Como, brings together the building, its interiors and many of its furnishings, allowing the same ideas to travel from the facade to the objects closest to the guest.
Urquiola's studio dates the original project to 2016 and describes a hotel built on an existing historic dock. The architecture takes a cue from the measured geometry of Giuseppe Terragni's Casa del Fascio in nearby Como. That reference is translated into a contemporary lakeside setting: a clear structural rhythm, framed outlooks and a material palette connected to the region. [1]
A facade that guests can change
In a project interview, Urquiola explained that the repeated bays became a starting point for adjustable timber screens. Guests can alter the balance of daylight and shade themselves. The exterior therefore records everyday occupation rather than holding a single fixed composition. Seen as an interior-design decision, this is significant: privacy and atmosphere are partly placed in the hands of the people using the room.
The hotel operator describes suites with full-height glazing and waterfront views. The effect is to give the landscape a continuing role in the interior, rather than treating it as a decorative image at the end of an axis. Furniture, surfaces and circulation have to leave enough visual space for that changing presence. The design's restraint is most convincing when understood as a way of maintaining this relationship. [2] [3]
Stone, wood and the scale of touch
The studio identifies Pietra di Fossena paving and Ceppo Lombardo on the facade and within the interiors. These are substantial, visibly textured materials: they give the modern geometry weight and a sense of location. The continuity between exterior and interior matters as much as the individual stone. It makes entering the building feel like a gradual change of environment.
The bathroom-cladding contractor, Marble Project, records several stone selections, including grey quartzite and varieties of travertine. Urquiola's published account adds walnut panelling and bathroom ceilings to the picture, alongside custom bathtubs developed for the hotel. The combination suggests a deliberately varied tactile experience. A room can remain calm without reducing every surface to the same colour, finish or temperature.
A prominent stair uses walnut steps within a framework of copper-toned metal tubes. Urquiola discussed it as a way of connecting levels while keeping the surrounding landscape visible. Its importance is spatial as well as sculptural: the open construction gives a necessary piece of circulation a relatively light presence. [1] [3] [4] [6]
A new building with a longer memory
The former dock also shaped the spa. The project manager records its construction within the old darsena between October 2016 and April 2017, following completion of the principal hotel works. Beneath the older structure's arches, the experience of the lake acquires a different scale. The spa brings guests closer to the site's accumulated history, while the rooms above engage with the openness of the water.
Patrick Blanc contributed planting installations to the setting, bringing another living layer into the relationship between architecture and landscape. What emerges from these different scales is a coherent proposition for hospitality: comfort can come from how a room is oriented, shaded and materially grounded, as much as from what is placed inside it. Il Sereno's most enduring interior-design idea is that the landscape remains an active participant throughout the stay. [1] [2] [5]
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