The Giardino della Velarca in Ossuccio, on Lake Como, has been restored and reopened to the public, completing the conservation of Velarca, the extraordinary house-boat designed by the Milanese architectural practice BBPR in 1959 and reopened by FAI in 2024.

Following just over six months of work, the lakeside garden has been transformed into a welcoming green space, set among traditional stone terraces and olive trees. Donated to FAI by Aldo and Maria Luisa Norsa in 2011, Velarca underwent a long and meticulous restoration before opening to visitors last year. The restored garden now brings to life the architects’ original vision for the site.

Covering 325 square metres, the garden occupies a narrow strip of land between the steep hillside dominated by the Torre del Barbarossa—also an FAI Property—and the shores of Lake Como, overlooking Isola Comacina and Villa del Balbianello, another FAI Property. This picturesque inlet, known locally as the zocca de l’oli (“the oil cove”), is renowned for its calm waters and mild climate, ideal for the cultivation of olive trees.

The Norsa family originally purchased the plot intending to build a house, but its narrow shape made it unsuitable for construction. Encouraged by their friends at BBPR, they embraced an unconventional solution: creating a house-boat permanently moored on the lake. The surrounding garden was conceived as an integral part of the project—a place with olive trees, vegetable plots and flowers, where family and friends could gather, relax and enjoy life by the water.

As architect Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso later recalled:

“We devoted particular care to designing the steep shoreline as a rustic garden with stone retaining walls, flowers, vegetables, climbing plants, olive trees and facilities for impromptu outdoor meals.”

Although this part of the scheme was never realised, the original drawings preserved in the archive have now inspired the restoration. Alongside the renewed planting, the garden now offers facilities for visitors, including a shaded area overlooking the house-boat and the lake, a welcome point and accessible lavatories. Carefully redesigned by FAI from BBPR’s original plans, the project completes the architectural concept of Velarca while remaining faithful to its original spirit.

Low stone terraces, characteristic of the local landscape, create a series of level garden spaces planted with olive trees, strawberry trees, pomegranates and other species typical of the Lake Como area. Existing olive and cypress trees have been carefully preserved, while informal stone paths connect the different parts of the garden.

A new timber pergola with a traditional reed roof—also part of BBPR’s original design—provides shade and shelter while discreetly housing the new visitor facilities. Echoing the clean lines of the house-boat, the structure features finely crafted oak beams and has been designed to ensure natural ventilation. Near the entrance, a small reception area overlooks the lake, with every architectural detail—from the mahogany timber cladding to the blue flooring—carefully conceived to harmonise with Velarca itself.

The restored garden enriches the visit by completing one of the most original masterpieces of twentieth-century architecture, now fully accessible to the public. As BBPR wrote in 1962:

“What matters here is not simply living on a boat, but the relationship created between the moored boat, the jetty, the water and the garden. Land, water, boats and landscape become a single environment, where one passes naturally from one element to another. Being ‘at anchor’ has a complete value of its own.”

The restoration has been made possible through the collaboration of public institutions, private donors, companies and individual supporters. FAI extends its thanks to the Municipality of Tremezzina for its patronage, the Autorità di Bacino del Lario e dei Laghi Minori, Regione Lombardia, Nora McNeely Hurley / Manitou Fund, Friends of FAI and FIMESA for their generous support.