Location: Arco, Italy.

Architect: noa* network of architecture.

Il Monastero is a 17th century monastery building located in the small Italian town of Arco, near Lake Garda. The architects were tasked with revitalizing the old building and creating a new hospitality model that combined the existing structure with a newly constructed wellness area. The wellness area is made up of simple rectangular volumes with glass fronts that open to the garden. The facade pillars define the privacy of the interior spaces, with thinner pillars and larger windows in public areas and denser pillars in more intimate spaces like saunas. The interiors of the monastery were designed to the bare minimum to respect the historic building and its value. The ground floor of the monastery houses the reception, a restaurant, a market-style buffet and shop, and a bar area with access to the garden. The upper floors have 41 rooms of various types. The building is under protection and cannot be demolished, so special care was taken not to alter the structure.