Trae!

Sustainable youth hostel and activity centre

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object Youth hostel

l Architect Lechner & Lechner architects

structural engineer Thomas Forshuber

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Hochkrimml, Austria

In Austria, skiing is such an important activity that it is taught at school. Now a new youth hostel in the village of Hochkrimml is enabling school classes to explore the Alps from a more sustainable perspective. To this end, it is built in CLT made from locally grown spruce, and the offcuts have been reused for furniture instead of being discarded. The youth hostel has 450 beds and a large sports hall with a gym and a three-storey high climbing wall. The building is designed so visitors can see all the levels from wherever they are. The foyer is two floors up, with views of the interior sports facilities, and the usual stairs have been replaced with carpeted steel ramps that create open spaces and unify the different floors. The main building is joined by two lower wings containing the communal spaces, clad in greenery on the outside to merge into the surroundings and lead the eye towards the main building’s exposed wood façade.« w| lechner-lechner.at S