Gesundheitszentrum Wetzlgut

Bad Gastein, Austria

Photo © Ulrich Schwarz

Hotels + Hostels + Guest Houses

Architects: KUEHN MALVEZZI

Location: Bad Gastein, Austria
Year: 2009
Client: BVV Immobilien und Beteiligungen GmbH

The hotel complex for the health center had developed over several decades at the foot of the Stubnerkogel. Kuehn Malvezzi’s task was to fit in a new set of rooms that would harmonize with the surrounding landscape and relate to local architecture without subordinating itself to the area’s predominantly traditional formal vocabulary. In keeping with Adolf Loos’s dictum not to build “in a picturesque manner” in the mountains, the structure is made up of a series of carefully staggered cubes set into the slope, each one’s ground plan identical in outline to its elevation. The new building is connected to the existing ones by an enclosed passageway that leads guests into what is in effect a new aesthetic world. In the entrance area along the north side, an almost sacral use of light allows guests to experience the full height of the building. All rooms, on the other hand, face south towards the valley.