house of nature – 3rd place

The fortress-like new tower of the Steinbock Museum rises high above the Pitztal valley floor. After walking through the vertical exhibition sequence in the museum, a footbridge leads over the entrance to the listed Schrofenhof to the nearby edge of the forest. The new ‘House of Nature’ can only be glimpsed behind the trees, nestling gently on the forest slope. A hiking trail loop takes those arriving from the footbridge to the entrance, which is covered by a cantilever of the wooden component. A slight pivoting of two stacked components integrates the lying building into the terrain, thereby strengthening the connection to the landscape. The bend in the facade at the entrance resembles a protective hand, the height gradation of the floors sensitively follows the topography and positions the wooden structure above the site. The polygonal shape is a reaction to the topography, but at the same time it is also a built dialogue with the Capricorn Museum. Together with the Schrofenhof, the three form an ensemble due to their star-shaped orientation to one another. The height development in the interior enables a spacious spatial experience for exhibition and seminar areas and gives the duplex a subtle compactness.  Some of the exhibition stairs can be used as a seating step (lectures/atrium). The seminar room forms – like a perch – the end of the meander. The directed view opens into the valley between the Schrofenhof and the Steinbock Museum, but also into the adjacent, gently flowing terrain with dense forests.  A skylight as a roof fold brings light to the vertical staircase connection in the middle of the building. The hunting room is centrally located and can be accessed directly from the outside and from the foyer. All side rooms are arranged underground, the building site in the middle of the forest is spared from having too large a building mass/footprint, and the ‘House of Nature’ adapts to its surroundings like a sleeping forest animal.