Alpine Places of Contemplation

In 2021 I decided to cross the Alps with my father from Munich to Venice within 30 days. The topic is based on this journey, whereby it is about raising awareness for the nature, mountains and climate. This project includes two mountain huts and four places of contemplation. They shall share the unique moments of time and space through their architecture.

Hiking, or "traveling on foot" from the point of view of experiencing the landscape and to gain an unadulterated contact with nature is not an invention of the 21st century. Already in the second half of the 18th century, the writer Karl Philipp Moritz described a "foot tour addiction." In this project, there are various rest places designed that are located on the hiking trail from Munich to Venice. They are strongly related to their direct environment. The design includes two mountain huts and four places of contemplation. One mountain hut is located south of Munich and prepares the hiker for the journey ahead. It is a place for catering, accommodation and information gathering for those who are planing to go on the long journey. The other mountain hut is located as the conclusion of the long hike on the last mountain range, the Nevegal Mountains. From here it is possible to look across the landscape from Italy to the Lagoon of Venice. This mountain hut is intended as a structural answer of the travel, serving as a transition from the vertical mountain landscape back to the horizontal plane land. This is a building you enter with experience and it includes next to common areas also personal spaces of retreat to process the journey with a great view to the goal of the trip. In between, at the borders of the mountain ranges crossed by the hiker, small places of contemplations are planned to lead the hiker back to nature. In order to create a deeper perception of the surroundings, some of the rest places contain simple structural elements to consciously direct the hiker‘s view. The way these places are designed is to achieve the greatest possible effect with the smallest interventions possible. Above all the diverse materiality in the Alps, which exist in the immediate environment, it is possible to achieve great effects that lead to a conscious perception and confrontation with the place.