The Vertikale Kletterhalle, or vertical climbing gym, was designed by architects Martin Mutschlechner and Barbara Lanz of Stadtlabor, in collaboration with local architect Wolfgang Meraner in the town of Brixen.

By day the building appears as an opaque box with a crumpled exterior inspired by the ripples of a curtain, but once the sun goes down the interior becomes visible and reveals climbers scaling the 15-metre wall inside.

"We wanted the building to be hermetic during daytime and completely transparent at night," Mutschlechner told Dezeen. "The first idea was to create a curtain and the waving of the facade was added to create a moiré effect. It was very important for us to have a facade that changes transparency during the day and changes pattern if you move around the building."

Climbers also benefit from the perforated facade, as it offers them a view towards the Dolomite Mountains on the horizon during the day. "The climbers love the transparency and bright interior," said Mutschlechner.

An additional climbing wall is mounted onto the building's exterior so that climbers can choose to be subjected to the elements.

The metal panels also form part of a multi-layered building envelope that incorporates a climate control system providing natural ventilation, heat storage and anti-glare filters.

Other unusual climbing centres completed in recent years include a centre with tread-like indents in its concrete facade and a climbing wall contained in a windowless yellow cube.

See more stories about climbing walls or see all our stories about sports centres.

Photography is by G.R. Wett.

Here's a project description from the architects:

Indoor Rock Climbing, Brixen

The indoor rock climbing hall in Brixen arises close to the historic center and is therefore – compared to other similar sport infrastructures – designed with a high aesthetic and artistical claim.

Nature and landscape are transported into the building through a transparent façade design; at the same time, the inside remains visible to the outside. The multi-layer facade creates a moiré effect, generating always new impressions for the moving observer and both the users inside as also the viewer outside in a dynamic relationship to the climbing gym provides.

In the planning of the climbing hall, ecological aspects and sustainability were essential. Through detailed planning and a sophisticated climate control system with multi-layer façade assembly, ventilation and heat storage by intermediate zones in the facade construction, as well as creation of thermal mass in the building. With the use of solar energy, the seasonally changing façade envelope and natural ventilation, mechanical cooling is not necessary and results in significant cost savings for construction and operating costs.

The climbing hall is south-facing from the new town square, facing north from the upper City Park a connection to the new underground car park is provided; the disabled access guarantees also the use for therapeutic purposes.

The open design of the climbing hall with free-standing climbing towers allows a view outwards on park and square, as well as inward on the entire hall. The technical concept makes the climbing hall suitable for sport climbers and recreational climbers, for training and competition.

Client: Community of Brixen, Italy
Architecture: ARGE Mutschlechner, Architekten Lanz, Arch. Wolfgang Meraner
Contractor: Frener & Reifer
Installation Engineering: Transsolar
Light advice: Halotech, Zumtobel

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This Tokyo house by Japanese studio Naf Architect & Design has a climbing wall and ladders, in case the owners get bored of using the stairs.

The seven-metre climbing wall is positioned in a courtyard at the centre of the house and leads up to rooms on the first floor, then on to a roof terrace hidden behind a two-metre-high parapet.

Ladders and staircases also connect the two floors, which together accommodate bedrooms and living spaces for a family of four.

We're noticing a trend for climbing walls in Japanese houses - see another one here. See all our stories about climbing walls here.

Photography is by Toshiyuki Yano.

Here's some more information from the architects:

3way House

A house which has three means of vertical transportation; climbing wall, ladders and stairs. The house is located in a residential area where old and new buildings stand intermingled and buildings are rebuilt to be taller than 7 meters high, as the vicinity has become "district where minimum limit of the building height is 7 meters above ground."

The client is a family of a couple and two children, and they wanted a traditional wooden house from the start. The structure of the building is a traditional two-storey wooden house with deck roof whose rooftop is surrounded by two-meter parapet to satisfy the regulation of minimum height of the district. The rooftop is like a room without ceiling surrounded by two-meter wall.

We've given three means of vertical transportation to this building of three layers; first floor, second floor and rooftop. The climbing wall leads from porch to the rooftop via courtyard; ladders go up from living room through an opening to hobby room; stairs start from kitchen to sun room where laundry is hung. These vertical paths of flow are also passages of sunlight and air, which contribute to creating a sunny and airy indoor environment. Up on the rooftop, roofs of neighbours can be seen stretching far. As the renovation of the vicinity goes on, the view from the rooftop will change with growing number of rooftops.

When we are on the ground, it is hard to realize the relations with neighbours up on the rooftop. We aimed to create versatile living space which allows more opportunities to socialize with neighbours while multiplying family pleasure by closely connecting the ground and rooftop with three means of transportation.

Name of the Project: 3way House
Location: Adach ward, Tokyo
Category: detached house
Zoning use district: -
Fire protection specification: -
Structure: Wood construction
Number of stories: 2 stories above ground

Maximum height: 7.699 m
Maximum eave height: 5.655 m
Frontal road: 4.00m on the south / 6.00m on the east
Site area: 63.47m2
Building area: 44.41m2
Total floor area: 90.71m2
Completion: September 17, 2010
Architect: Akio NAKASA(director)

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Japanese studio Tato Architects have converted a warehouse in Osaka into a house where residents can climb up the walls.

Designed for a couple who enjoy rock-climbing in their spare time, the two-storey house has a sloping wooden wall on the first floor with affixed treads for climbing practice.

A double-height living and dining room stretches across one half of the residence, where a ladder provides a shortcut up and down from the master bedroom.

During the renovation the architects also re-clad the building in galvanised steel and replaced a pair of large shutters with square glazing panels.

If you're interested in rock-climbing walls, why not check some other stories we've featured about them here?

Photography is by Satoshi Shigeta.

Here's the full project description from Tato Architects:

House in Izumi-Ohmiya, a project converting a warehouse into residence.

A warehouse was converted into a residential space for a young couple who like bouldering which is a kind of free climbing and a sport to climb rocks of two to four meters high without lifeline.

The inside walls are designed in several leaned parts for them to attach some instruments to practice bouldering. For changing the nature of the building we came up with additional walls minimizing the modification to the existing building. As the outside walls were of ACL and the resistance against heat and rain were anticipated, they are covered with corrugated galvalume steal plates with heat insulator attached on the back. Floor heating with heat condensing stuff is laid over the existing floor for maintaining air conditioning of the big volume space. We can use electricity cheaply during a period at night. The air conditioning system uses such electricity to heat the floor concrete with heaters buried therein. Sunlight through the fixed large window will additionally heat up the floor. Electric energy and sunlight stored in the floor concrete will be released from the surface throughout the day.

The existed shutter was removed and a big window is provided instead. Taking advantage of parking space in the front, the fence was furnished with corrugated plates of light transmitting milk-white for the eyes from the street to be taken off.

The design was made to be converted into a light, broad residential space for the young client who likes carpentry as well.

Project name: House in Izumi_ohimiya
Location of site: Osaka Japan
Site area: 162.15m2
Building area: 79.20m2
Total floor area: 118.41m2
Type of Construction: Steel
Program:house&atelier
Project by: Tato architects
Principal designer: Yo shimada

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A windowless yellow facade shrouds the interior of this concrete gymnasium in southern France by architects Heams et Michel.

Located beside a secondary school in the town of Tourrette Levens, the building is used by students for gymnastics and as a general hall.

The textured concrete exterior is separated into rows of vertical stripes that the architects hoped would resemble the folding fabric of a stage curtain.

Daylight permeates the concrete walls through high-level windows on the rear elevation, as well as through a pyramidal roof light.

A colourful rock-climbing wall is located at the back of the hall, while panels of oriented strand board line the lower levels of the three remaining walls.

We've recently featured another building in France with a rock-climbing wall inside - see our earlier story here.

Photography is by Serge Demailly and Heams et Michel

Here's some text from architect Benjamin Michel:

Gymnastics building

The building of the gym in Tourrette Levens is part of a plot where is erected a secondary school, and a gymnasium. This new building reserved for students and associations is intended for gymnastics and circus.

The program simplicity led us to reflect on the plastic side of the project. In fact, the area of study of the circus, put out the physical and moral development, includes a cultural, artistic, and social. The transience of the circus that is assembled and disassembled in cities remains in the collective unconscious. Our project is an allegory of the circus tent.

The idea is simple " a concrete box that was covered with a cloth ". Concealment becomes mystery, and make us perceive differently what was commonplace before. We wanted to create a sculptural object concealed and packed in a skin of concrete, corrugated as a wavy stage curtain.

The yellow ocher color gives the blind walls an expression of lightness heightened by the fact that the stamped concrete does not touch the ground. Because of this, the object, which could have been a simple gym, takes an artistic dimension.

The volume chosen is voluntary simple : a rectangular parallelepiped of 14 meters wide and 8 meters in height in continuity of the existing gymnasium and detached from it by the volume of the entrance hall and deposits, which is less high.

By its presence, the project aims to complete the overall design of the existing sports facilities, by standing as a new south gable.

A single material wraps all the facades of the object. It walls are made of a stamped and painted concrete called "draped concrete" with a texture reminiscent of stage curtains.

The texture of the drapery is obtained by using two alternating matrices of slightly different patterns, but the same height as the concrete shells, specially designed for the project. Those walls have been casted all the way up, and the self-placing concrete has been poured in a single process so as not to reveal a horizontal joint. The vertical ones disappear in the pattern of the drapery.

Inside the room, a natural light is achieved by the presence of two major openings, not noticeable from the outside, a glass square on the roof, centered on the room, and a horizontal window in the north facade.

In this volume, the human scale is found by the calpinage at the bottom (2m50), a bounding of impact resistant OSB panels. And at the top we used acoustic wood wool insulation panels. The ceiling is made of raw concrete.

A direct connection to the existing gymnasium was constructed to promote exchanges between the various sports.

By this project, the idea of a building disappears in favor of an object carved in relation to its context and program. The rationale for the staging of such an object lies in the definition of the close relationship between sports, circus, entertainment, art, and social.

Project name: Gymnastics building Programme : Sport.
Location: Tourrette Levens, France

Architects: Heams et Michel
Engineer: GL Ingénierie
Client: Conseil Général des Alpes Maritimes

Project area: 240 m2 SHON.
Project year: 2011.

Entreprises:
Dévoiement réseaux: La Nouvelle SIROLAISE
Gros Œuvre: TRIMARCO Construction
Etanchéité: GALINELLI
Menuiseries métalliques – Serrurerie: SARL DEGIVRY
Sols Sportifs: MS DECO
É quipements sportifs: ENTRE PRISES
Electricité: EUROPELEC
Plomberie – Chauffage – Ventilation: AQUALIA
Finitions: SILENCE CONORT

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