Before a wall moves by the lake: who does what, and who signs

An apartment in Paradiso, fourth floor, looking over the gulf. The owner wants to open the kitchen onto the living room, redo two bathrooms and close the loggia with sliding glazing. Three jobs, three different regimes: the first depends on the structure, the second on the drainage stacks, the third on the external appearance of the building and therefore on the owners assembly and on the municipality. Whoever brings those three tracks together is not a furniture supplier. It is a precise technical role, and it is worth knowing where it starts and where it stops before signing anything.

Architect, interior architect, decorator: three distinct trades

Confusing these three profiles is the most common reason a project goes off the rails. The skills overlap in part, the legal responsibilities do not. In Ticino the difference becomes concrete the moment someone has to sign a file: only a professional listed on the OTIA register (the association of engineers and architects of Canton Ticino) may sign a building application, and for a mainly architectural project they must be authorised in the corresponding professional group.

What changes when you hire an interior designer in Lugano

Lugano is not a residential market like the others in Switzerland. The concentration of international residents, the pressure on the lakefront and a stock made up in good part of nineteen-sixties and nineteen-seventies buildings awaiting upgrade produce briefs with very specific constraints. A professional who works here regularly knows them before the tape measure comes out.

• Clients who often live elsewhere and follow the site remotely: the appointment must build in reporting and decisions at fixed dates
• View and southern orientation that weigh as much as floor area: the layout is designed from the openings, not from the walls
• An insubric climate with hot, humid summers: solar shading and cross ventilation are not accessories
• Buildings held in condominium ownership where facade, roof and external windows are common parts
• Suppliers and trades on both sides of the Italian border, each with their own access and tax rules
• Two cantonal consent routes: notifica for ordinary interior work, building application for everything else

The phases of an appointment, and what is decided in each

On a medium-sized apartment, nine to fourteen months normally pass between the first visit and handover, of which three or four are design and consent alone. Anyone promising three months in total is leaving something out of the count: almost always the consent stage or the lead times on bespoke joinery.

Notifica or building application: the Ticino fork in the road

The cantonal building act of 13 March 1991 provides a simplified route, the notifica, for works of secondary importance: renovation and alteration without changing the use, the volume or the general appearance of the building. The notifica is published by the municipality at the communal registry for fifteen days, and the municipality decides within fifteen days of the end of that publication. Anything outside that perimeter falls under the ordinary procedure.

The boundary between the two regimes is assessed case by case with the municipality, and a preliminary enquiry is worth more than a design frozen too early. In Lugano the procedural fees are calculated on the construction cost: indicatively 0.2% cantonal plus 0.2% communal for the ordinary procedure, 0.2% communal for the notifica, with preliminary enquiries and renewals at half rate and the habitability certificate at 100 CHF per unit. An interior architect not listed on the OTIA register may design and supervise, but for the signature on the building application they will need to bring in an authorised architect: settle that in the appointment, not once the file is already moving.

Fees: percentage, hourly or fixed

The SIA fee models remain a widely used calculation reference, but they have not been binding since 2020: prices are negotiated. In practice three formats coexist. A percentage of the works cost covers the full service through to site supervision. An hourly rate, between 120 and 300 CHF depending on experience and role, suits one-off advice and isolated phases. A fixed price per phase works well when the scope is defined and stable.

The last two bars deserve more attention than the first two. A contingency of 10-20% is not accounting pessimism: it is the condition for not having to stop the site at the first surprise behind the plaster. And the average overrun of 15-25% on renovations describes exactly the projects that start without a contingency and without a serious survey. Always require the offer to state which phases are included, how many site visits are allowed for, and how client-requested variations are charged.

Why the Italian border changes the quotes

Twenty minutes from Lugano there are joinery workshops, stone masons and window manufacturers working at noticeably lower rates. The temptation is obvious, and sometimes the choice is right. But the comparison has to be made on the delivered-to-site cost and on the ability to return under warranty, not on the list price.

• Importing goods into Switzerland means customs clearance and import VAT at the standard rate of 8.1%, on top of transport and paperwork
• Foreign firms posting staff must notify the activity online in advance, as a rule eight days before the start; in construction and related sectors the notification duty applies from the first day
• Minimum wages under the collective agreements applicable in Switzerland also cover posted staff: the price advantage on labour narrows
• Technical standards do not always match: sanitaryware dimensions, sockets, electrical protection and fire resistance classes need checking before ordering
• The real hidden cost is after-delivery service: who comes back to adjust a door that has moved after the first winter, and how quickly
• A cross-border quote and a Swiss quote are only comparable if both set out installation, transport, duties and warranty in the same way

Condominium, common parts and outdoor living

In condominium ownership as governed by the Swiss Civil Code, the private unit ends where the envelope begins. Facade, roof, load-bearing structure, drainage stacks and generally the external windows are common parts: altering them goes through the assembly, with different majorities depending on whether the work is necessary, useful or a luxury, and within the community regulations. Before drawing anything, obtain the regulations, the constitutive deed and the minutes of the last few assemblies: it often turns out that a window replacement is already planned at building level, and that aligning with it beats acting alone. The same boundary governs the most Luganese part of the project: outdoor living. Terraces, loggias and porticoes are habitable space for a good part of the year, but they are also exposed surface. Blinds, pergolas, glass balustrades and enclosures affect the general appearance of the building, and therefore both the condominium regulations and the building consent route. Design the solar shading at the same time as the internal layout: south-facing glazing onto the lake without external shading turns the living room into a greenhouse from June to September, and no cooling system corrects that mistake afterwards at a reasonable cost.

By the lake a project does not start with the furniture, it starts with the light and with the people entitled to say no: the assembly, the municipality, the structure. Everything else comes after.

When it is worth hiring one, and when it is not