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Herzog & de Meuron designs gondola station at 3000m in Switzerland

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.  

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

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