Innsbruck-based architects Astearchitecture have completed a mountain-top viewing platform above a glacier in Tyrol, Austria.
The steel structure, completed last month, cantilevers nine metres over a ridge on Mount Isidor.
The following text is from Astearchitecture:
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Top of Tyrol by astearchitecture
The viewpoint platform on Mountain Isidor in Tyrol, Austria is a drawing in the snow, it forms an architectural edge walker and causes interplay between construction and landscape.
The orchestration and oversubscription of the existing topography transforms landscape into built architecture which mediates between statics and dynamics, between stagnancy and new perspectives.
Trail and platform are placed in brittle rock. Its lamellas will disappear in the snow for six month a year. Only the cantilevering bracings over the north wall will be visible in winter time.
Wind and sun will excavate the steal lamellas nearly like a sketch in the snow.
The extreme conditions of the nearby glacier effectuate visual transformations of the steel construction with masks of ice and snow.
The steel structure consists of a grillage of beams covered by gratings. The bracings in Corten-Steel cantilever 9 meter over the ridge. The forces are transferred into concrete foundations and rock anchors. The curved monolithic railing is made out of Corten-Steel.
The site is located on 3200m at the Stubai Glacier in Tyrol, Austria.
October 21st, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Very cool!
October 21st, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I thought it’s a rendering
) … I can’t believe it 
)) .. incredible good job from my point of view, congrats guys
October 21st, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Just beautiful. Scary but beautiful!
October 21st, 2008 at 6:43 pm
looking forward for more information about this. thanks for sharing. Eugene
October 21st, 2008 at 7:41 pm
very nice. more pics and drawings please
October 21st, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Amazing! The structure is soft and lightweight. The platform is just brilliant. The third image is wonderful I think
October 21st, 2008 at 10:18 pm
a master stroke… structurally, aesthetically and graphically.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Wow, I wish I lived in the area that would be something to go see!
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:38 am
I have an unbelievable amount of respect for the contractors and tradesmen that built that.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:45 am
it looked out of place to me, until I saw the pictures with snow on it, and then it all clicked for me. Very nice work.
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:58 am
wow very nice. like a bird of prey poised to dive off the cliff edge and devour a few unsuspecting skiers!
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:58 am
Wow. Brilliant. Elegant and functional up close. And small and leaving minimal impact to the gorgeous mountaintop from afar. Brilliant.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:29 am
this is super cool.
me-likes.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 am
nice…
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:54 am
Absolutely Stunning.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:34 am
BEAUTIFUL peace of land art. Well done!
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:21 am
very cool
very hot
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:30 am
Very, very nice! Looks as if it will tip over…
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 am
every mountain should have one like this, just so usefull…
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:16 am
B R A V O
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:45 am
Everything seems right in this one but I like the way it bends the path outside and seems to fall. I’m not sure I would have guts to go there though. The material works very good, as it is something that comes out of the mountain but clearly manmade. It’s both light and earthlike. I haven’t seen such unanimity in the comments for so long.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Absolutely stunning….
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Uau!
plastic, clean – Wonderfull.
Very very cool!
Congratulations.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
very nice response of the context
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Pretty nice design and the demand serving function is obvious but I also think that the structure is disturbing the natural line of the ridge (pic #5) and the landscape (pic #6).
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Awesome work & I bet the view must be worth it!!
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:05 pm
yay a post with no negative comments that we all like
and no inane trifilings from Zuy
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Wonderfull !!!contextuel architecture or design is a better response than ego achitecture or design
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:01 pm
i suggest this contextuel chair so art design will become useful
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/student-designs-chair-full-of-garbage.php
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Orrible!
No respect for Enviroment
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Really crazy, a beautyfull sign in the nature, architecture pure!!! Love it!
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:32 pm
nice
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Sorry, it’s beautiful, but what’s wrong with just standing on the peak and enjoying the view without a man-made platform?
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:21 am
gross. whats wrong with standing on the rock.
October 23rd, 2008 at 7:58 am
No Lu, it’s not Orrible, with all respect.
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:33 am
The design is cool, contextual, sensitive, it is good executed, detailed but…
…is this really necessary?
You get the exact same breathtaking view standig by the platform as standing actually on it. It destroys the very thing it tries to show: the raw, undisturbed nature, in which man is only a temporary guest, a tolerated intruder. Look at the last two pictures: wouldn´t it be even more impressing without this object? Or even without the ski-elevator? Couldn´t we just go up there, look around, come back again and leave it like it was? O.K., maybe it would be fewer people who get up there, maybe mountainiers only, you need cramp-ons and ice-axe, rope, etc., but it would show a lot more respect.
like artcoup said ironically:
“every mountain should have one like this, just so usefull…”
Imagine a world, with a cable-car access to every peak, a mountain-lodge in every valley, a ski-elevator on every slope, of course of highest architectural quality, perfect execution… no, please, don´t.
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
to those who criticize the environmental aspects of the project: did you notice that its standing in the middle of a giant ski region? there are a whole lot of chair lifts, restaurants and so on around it. the environment there is not pure nature and hasn’t been for years.
and i think it’s much more spectacular than just standing on the rock, you have a vertical view down – and thats one of the things ski regions sell: the spectacular.
October 24th, 2008 at 8:13 am
This would be a great spot to visit while on vacation or a weekend getaway.
October 24th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Adorava fumar um charrinho ali! Hmmm…..
Pena na aguentar com o frio!
October 24th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Wow! I like it! Its like a fly over the mountains
October 24th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Desde el punto de vista arquitectónico es espectacular, pero yo prefiero la naturaleza en estado puro.
October 24th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I join the opinion that this plaf form is a bit off the focus, a bit too formalistic to be up on the mountai there. I would rather not to see any of this on top of the mountain, after walkingup some 1000 m on foot.
This said, I rather like its formalism. Soft, it reminds me of Dali’s clock. I can agree to the notion that the earth is melting down, the plat formis alarming thing… In itself contain great conceptual strength, so … in my corridor, I shout (great, well done astearchitecture!)
…
To Be Designer is a hard job to do.
October 27th, 2008 at 11:18 am
it looks very organic .. and must me terribly exciting to stand there.
Since the tyrolian mountains offer one of the most spectacular views , this is very inspired .
love it .thumbs up .
October 30th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
In Summer, when snow and skiers are gone, ski resorts and areas are very ugly. As humans we like to defy nature… In my opinion this kind of structure can be placed on the edge of respectful/disrespectful architectural ‘operations’ on nature. I would like to see it to give a more thoughtful opinion. Does somebody know about other examples of platforms like this on natural sites? (Like the one in the Grand Canyon for example)
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:39 am
It’s beyond my imagination. It’s really fantastic. But I want to know how much is this structure.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
wow theyve created such a beautiful usable area in such a harse place. I would want to stay there for hours
November 13th, 2008 at 11:44 am
It’s spectacular, but nonsense. Lots of people needs architecture help; it can be created it in a spectacular way too…and also useful.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
I agree, murmanita.
January 28th, 2009 at 10:20 am
need the drawings of it pleaz