Dachstein Chalet

By Luca Maria Francesco Fabris - 3 April 2023

In recent years, Alpine architecture is proving on several fronts to be the architectural typology undergoing truly interesting transformation. Traditional materials and forms are responding to new trends and incorporating new applications, which although not constituting a revival, have prompted a renewed interest in buildings in mountainous areas. This has also been triggered by the virtuous cycle undergone by one of the most sustainable materials ever: wood. Traceable, recyclable, durable and of low environmental impact, timber, especially in its most high-tech and innovative versions – from the well-known glulam through to the newer
cross-laminated timber (CLT) – is one of the oldest construction materials. Building with wood gave rise to age-old craft construction methods similar the world over. Today, however, designers and technical experts have extended the structural resistance of natural wood, with the result that it can now be called an engineered material, with a great future ahead of it. In fact, new timber products are revolutionizing and extending the boundaries of wood as a building material, so much so that it is now entering our concrete-designed cities as a structural option. In mountain environments, new
high-tech, low environmental-impact buildings are moving away from what we could call typical traditional typologies to take on assertive designs that are finding increasing favor with a tourist segment anxious to combine environmental responsibility with technological innovation and the ultimate in contemporary design. We might even go as far as to say that great, unstoppable changes are afoot to preserve the tenuous relationship between Man and Nature.

Designed by Jadric Architektur in Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria, the chalet is part of this transition. Although taking the traditional name, and retaining some features of the traditional alpine house, it stands for something completely...