Conservative enhancement of the historic garden of Villa Allamel in Cernobbio, Lake Como. The landscape design recovers the original layout of the flowerbeds and leads small building works with quality materials to re-establish the connection between the nineteenth-century residence and its garden.
The outdoor paving of Villa Allamel is slightly extended with black and white pebbles in continuity with the ones already exhisting at the area dedicated to relax. The new edges in Sardininan granite, installed with the assistance of the gardener to avoid any damage to the root systems of plants, merge with the original ones. The landscape design enhances also the vegetation of the site, celebrated in the historical records of the Como Lake villas as an integral part of the panorama of the Cernobbio shore and of the Larian identity. The ornamental boxwood hedge (Buxus sempervirens) now pauses at the spots heavily exposed to the breeze. Moving elsewhere specimens made it possible to improve the vegetative conditions of the plants and to visually connect the central lawn to the iconic terrace on the lake framed by columns, covered with wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) at the arrival of spring. In order to safeguard the root pan of the centuries-old climber, the white-flowered hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata) enriching the basement are grown in in bottomless planters. Planted together with cushions of Vinca minor ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ to extend the blooming period to late summer, the shrubs are laid down freely giving a new lightness to the architecture. A compact island of muscari (Liriope muscari) re-establishes the pivotal role of the old Magnolia grandiflora sited at the crossing point between the main lawn and the terrace, between the garden and the private dock. The new planters, as well as the new pergola with diamond treillage designed by Valerio Cozzi for the relax area of the historic garden of Villa Allamel are in galvanized steel, anthracite grey colour – a contemporary development of the wrought iron parapets and Nouveau glass canopy of the estate.
Location: Cernobbio, Como
Area: 700 m2
Year: 2019 (design), 2020 (construction)
In partnership with: arch. Miyajima Hajime, Crial, Maurizio Pifferi by Lario Giardini
Materials: black and white pebbles, Sardinian granite, galvanized steel painted anthracite grey colour
Plant species additions: Hydrangea paniculata, Liriope muscari, Vinca minor ‘Gertrude Jekyll’
Services: Concept Design, Construction Design, Construction Works Supervision