After a long restoration, La Velarca, the houseboat designed by Studio BBPR in 1959, opens to the public: a small masterpiece of modern architectural history moored in Ossuccio, on Lake Como.

On 14 September 2024 FAI inaugurated La Velarca*, the houseboat designed by the Milanese BBPR Studio (Gian Luigi Banfi, Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, Enrico Peressutti and Ernesto Nathan Rogers) in 1959 and moored in Ossuccio, Tremezzina, on Lake Como opposite the Comacina Island. Donated to the FAI in 2011 by Aldo and Maria Luisa Norsa, after a long restoration period the Velarca returned to its original mooring and opened to the public.

A small masterpiece of modern architecture

Not just a simple houseboat, but a small masterpiece of modern architectural history, designed by the same architects as the Velasca Tower, symbol of Milan, deliberately referred to in the name ‘Velarca’. Not just a holiday home, but a special place imagined by Fiammetta and Emilio, Aldo Norsa’s parents, destined to receive, welcome and bring together friends and acquaintances who already frequented their Milanese home, including great personalities of Italian culture, starting with the Milanese architects Rogers, Peressutti and Belgiojoso themselves, as well as Riccardo Sambonet, Gio Ponti, Gillo Dorfles, Eugenio Montale, Lucio Fontana, Umberto Eco, Cesare Musatti, and others.

A new FAI property on Lake Como

A new FAI property open to the public, joining the 71 managed by the Trust throughout Italy, including the nearby Villa del Balbianello and Torre del Soccorso*, in the same municipality of Tremezzina. This is a new cultural offering for Lake Como, with which FAI wants to help promote diversified and more sustainable tourism, offering a new destination, a new viewpoint on the Lake Como landscape and a new story to tell that will thrill the curious and satisfy specialists and amateurs alike. Finally, a cultural asset that is completely original in terms of its type, and yet a monument in its own right: a pinnacle of Italian culture in the field of modern architecture and design, reflecting the incredible variety and richness of the country’s heritage that FAI, by mission*, with a subsidiary spirit, protects and promotes forever and for all.

A house on a boat

The Velarca was designed and built between 1959 and 1961 by the BBPR studio, commissioned by Emilio and Fiammetta Norsa to create a floating home in which to accommodate family and friends.

When they took on this job, BBPR had recently completed the Torre Velasca in Milan, a work that has left its mark on international modern architecture.

Velarca itself is a true work of architecture and an object of design, whose forms and spaces reflect the characteristics of the Milanese firm’s typical architecture: attention to the environment, interpretation of the site, quality of design and accuracy of construction, which make Velarca extraordinarily modern and at the same time anchored in the past.

And it is in fact in the past and in the history of Lake Como that the Velarca rests: to design it, the architects added a living volume on the hull of an old 19-metre Lariana gondola, the ‘Corriera Tremezzina’, which crossed Lake Como carrying goods and people from 1911.

In 2011, Aldo and Maria Luisa Norsa, son and daughter-in-law of the historic owners, wished to donate the Velarca together with the small garden to which it is moored in Ossuccio – on the shores of Lake Como in the Zoca de l’Oli, opposite the Isola Comacina – to the FAI.

The inauguration

The inauguration took place on 14 September in Ossuccio (CO), in the presence of: Marco Magnifico, FAI President; Mauro Guerra, Mayor of Tremezziana; Luigi Lusardi, President of the Autorità di Bacino del Lario e dei Laghi Minori; Claudia Maria Terzi, Lombardy Region’s Councillor for Infrastructure and Public Works.

“The Velarca is one of those ‘details’ that make Italy’s cultural heritage priceless and expand its vastness and variety far beyond the imaginable. The Velarca is a sublime “capriccio”, a small masterpiece of the 20th century, whimsical, bizarre, unrepeatable as are often the results produced by the encounter between a cultured, intelligent and lively patronage such as the Norsa couple and professionals of the level of BBPR. It is an honour for FAI to have been commissioned by the Norsa heirs to perpetuate its existence and narrate its history and value,” said Marco Magnifico, President of FAI Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano.

“The history and tradition of lake transport with the Corriere meets, at the moment of the end of an era and a function, the Norsa couple and the BBPR Studio that ingeniously and originally reinvent a future that crosses and hosts great protagonists of Italian culture. And then the generosity that leads to the FAI’s commitment, to the new application of the mastery of the Larian nautical industry, in full cooperation with public bodies. A beautiful Italian story, another gem in the extraordinary FAI heritage in our area,” said Mauro Guerra, Mayor of Tremezzina.

The Long Restoration

The restoration by the FAI began in 2013 and involved reconstruction, restoration, recovery and functional adaptation of the Velarca, which took a very long time and required considerable resources.

Investigations immediately revealed that the hull, i.e. the structural part of the Velarca, was not restorable due to severe deterioration. Hence the decision to tow the boat from Ossuccio to Maslianico, at the Cantiere Ernesto Riva, to proceed with the reconstruction of the hull and bow and stern decks, and with the recovery, also with substantial additions, of the living quarters above.

The interiors were the subject of a second phase of work: partly reconstructed, partly restored and integrated with the utmost fidelity to what was preserved or visible in the historical photos. Furnishings, functional details and even objects were recovered or added to give the Velarca back its original appearance as a home, its full functionality and the atmosphere of the past. Thanks to funding from the Basin Authority and the Lombardy Region, maintenance work on the existing jetty at Ossuccio, to which the Velarca is once again docked, has also been completed, and a new state-owned jetty has been built, at which boats transporting visitors arriving from Villa del Balbianello will stop.

To complete the work, the garden was rehabilitated with an initial arrangement, characterized by a simple lawnflowers, in anticipation of a more structured project, inspired by the original BBPR studio, to be realized in spring next year.

The Velarca Launch

“In continuity with the historical cooperation between the Basin Authority and FAI, the offices that I preside over have provided for the management of relations between the co-financing bodies (the Lombardy Region and FAI) in order to guarantee the feasibility of the interventions connected with the restoration of the Velarca, and necessary to ensure the safety of the moorings, as well as the usability of the infrastructure and the enhancement of the historic boat. In particular, the restoration of the existing wharf and the construction of a new loading and unloading wharf in the municipality of Tremezzina will ensure maximum usability and visibility of the Velarca, contributing to the valorization of the boat and the lake shores historically linked to the beautiful boat restored by FAI,” said Luigi Lusardi, President of the Autorità di Bacino del Lario e dei Laghi Minori

Comment by Claudia Maria Terzi, Lombardy Region’s Councillor for Infrastructure and Public Works: “The Lombardy Region is also contributing to the long-awaited return of the Velarca to Lake Como. Donated to FAI in 2011 by Aldo and Maria Luisa Norsa, it had been missing from its mooring in front of the Comacina Island since 3 December 2013. After a lengthy restoration, it has returned to its original mooring and opened to the public thanks to the Piano Lombardia. The Region has allocated 250,000 euro to the Autorità di Bacino del Lario e dei Laghi Minori (Lario and Minor Lakes Basin Authority), as cofinancing for the construction of two landing stages in Ossuccio in the municipality of Tremezzina. This intervention, which combines culture, design, tourism and mobility in a virtuous way, has not only allowed access from the lake to the Velarca, thus enabling it to be visited again, but is also a further example of the great attention that the Lombardy Region pays to the infrastructure sector, as a key sector for the competitiveness and attractiveness of the area.

The visit

The visit to the Velarca will be accompanied by original podcasts and a video story, broadcast on a 1960s television, dedicated to the history of the houseboat: from the discovery of the ‘Corriera Tremezzina’ as the basis for the project, to the design of the houseboat by the BBPR studio, to the tale of the lengthy restoration work that made it functional againand open to the public today.

The restoration and enhancement work were carried out by FAI thanks to the fruitful collaboration with public bodies and the contributions of private individuals, companies and citizens. We thank Regione Lombardia, Comune di Tremezzina for their patronage; Autorità di bacino del Lario e dei Laghi minori for their contribution. We would like to thank Nora McNeely Hurley / Manitou Fund and Friends of FAI for their support. Thanks also to the Soprintendenza per i beni e le attività cultural.

*articles in Italian