Galzigbahn

How can floating remain visible?

A new basis cable car station to withstand the extreme alpine weather conditions, including side facilities like garage, engineering rooms, tension shaft, customer service area and office rooms, directly connected to the village. An attractive solution for an innovativ new system – giant wheels lead the entering gondola to a point which enables the guests to enter on ground level.

The steel-glass body consists of a massive concrete pedestal which floats into two walls (north and south) and is overarched by a glass construction. This weather protection coat is spanned, self-supporting, over the whole sta­tion and needs no contact points - due to a newly constructed supporting structure of round bars, a sort of space truss (organized in triangulated bracing) which carries off the weight of the roof into the steel concrete construction. To make the space truss appear as filigree as possible the strength of the bars has been optimized.

Glass, steel, concrete - sober feedstock, yet sensual in its combination. An architecture which strongly refuses the fashion of hollow and mean­ingless aesthetical over-forming. The form of the new basis station directly evolves out of the transport function it has to achieve. The desire for readability defines the material choice. Glass reveals technical inner life and previews the trip up to the moun­tain.

Concrete grounds the construction, anchors it into the slope, creates a counterweight

and is a carrier of a space truss (organized in triangulated bracing and as fili­gree as possible) which carries off the weight of the roof; the visible construction of the space truss (with its rig­gings and the chosen profiles) directly evolves from the prevailing wind and weather conditions, always standing in attention to defy wind, rain and snow-masses.

Form defines the function and evolves out of the balance of power; technical inner life and the experience of a jour­ney up the mountain are clearly evident and strongly op­pose architectural acting.