Swiss architect Herzog & de Meuron is to design a gondola station for skiers at the summit of the Titlis mountains near the town of Engelberg in central Switzerland. Â
The present gondola station, built in 1967, has been renovated and expanded multiple times but Herzog & de Meuron determined that further renovations "would not be sufficient to resolve the urgent problems of circulation and orientation".
The firm said the station will appear to be a "flat crystal growing out of the mountain, like a geological structure that pushes its way out of the glacier".
Two horizontal structures will be inserted into the current beam antenna tower, creating a cruciform shape, containing a bar, lounge and restaurant. In addition, stairs and lifts will be added to the station’s four vertical supports, a lobby will be built into the concrete base and there will be an underground tunnel containing an ice grotto.
Herzog & de Meuron said: "Our project on the Titlis belongs to a new generation of Alpine architecture that aims to do justice to the breathtaking landscape by ensuring a corresponding architectural experience of the kind now familiar to us in our cities."
Images courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron
