Krähenbühl Architekten Studio / Ingenieurbüro Walter Bieler: St. Moritz altitude training and competition centre  - best architects 21
Krähenbühl Architekten Studio / Ingenieurbüro Walter Bieler: St. Moritz altitude training and competition centre  - best architects 21

Krähenbühl Architekten Studio / Ingenieurbüro Walter Bieler

St. Moritz altitude training and competition centre

best architects 21

infrastructure buildings

Place

St. Moritz Bad, Switzerland

Photos

Laura Egger

Description

The St. Moritz Altitude-Training and Competition Centre (HTWZ) is a venerable institution and of major significance to track-and-field athletes from Switzerland and abroad. Thanks to the altitude and favourable climate, many elite athletes prepare themselves for competitions and championships in St. Moritz. The project comprises two buildings. The first is a mobile, temporary structure that is set up at the beginning of the training season at an ideal location by the race track and then taken down again in the autumn. This building consists of three rooms with different uses: the changing rooms, the common room and the massage room-cum-classroom, each of which forms an individual space beneath an expansive, protective roof. Air circulates between the spaces. The light, wooden structure consists of modules that are connected with construction bolts. The structure is then clad in a polycarbonate skin to protect the wood from the elements. Finally, the building is covered with a tin roof. The building was custom-designed for this specific location and use. In its design and external appearance, this mobile structure reflects its temporary character. The second building is used for storage. It comprises two areas that are joined in a single space: one area for storing equipment and another for storing the mobile structures.