1301iNN (Slow Horse)

The project recuperates an existing building to which a new extension has been added. The partial demolition of the original building allowed us to use the ground floor as the entrance hall, but also for the technical and management functions. The hotel, distributed on four floors, is composed of 37 bedrooms, the entrance hall and a cafeteria. A second lobby is located on the first floor, overlooking the landscape and the sport fields. The new part of the building bridges the existing part. Built on top of a concrete platform, suspended from the old structure, it has been designed completely in wood. The all project tries to bring in a new aura, in a town developed in the seventies for mere lucrative purposes. A place that gives its best when snow covers the eyesores of architecture arrogance. Just like a child, the building plays with snow, compacting and piling it in specific places, pre-defined by the shape of roof and facades, ice is part of the game and stalactites the ornament of the building not only in Christmas time. The partial demolition of the original building allowed us to use the ground floor as a entrance, with all those functions connected with governance and services of the hotel. The size of the area is slightly bigger than the building which covers a surface of 1000 square meters . The hotel is composed of 37 bedrooms for a total of 99 beds, an entrance lobby and a big cafeteria, another important hall is located at the first floor overlooking the landscape and the sport fields. The rest of the building bridges the old part; on top of a concrete platform, suspended just enough from the old structure, it has been designed to evoke the aura of old mountain structures but it is in deed the result of quite a sophisticated technological and structural thinking.

The shape of the roof, its capability of keeping andreleasing water, snow and ice, the orientation of the rooms according to the sun position andor the views and the progressive changing of the facades, due to time and weather, were the elements on which we put our effort in order to be able to define, in the best possible way, a layout for the functions in the interior of the hotel and, once built, to give back that aura that we were so willing to find and bring out.

The construction system is based on a traditional walls basement and a timber elevation for increased lightness and thermal insulation. The solution of timber construction prefabricated with bearing wall-elements of the light-frame type was necessary to minimize the duration of site work to use the summer months. The orientation of the rooms according to the sun position allowed us to exploit the sun gain. Moreover the building envelope is very well insulated, so that little energy is required for heating. The integration of a traditional system with one that allows for the recuperation of the