Dezeen Magazine

Top of Tyrol by Astearchitecture

Innsbruck-based architects Astearchitecture have completed a mountain-top viewing platform above a glacier in Tyrol, Austria.

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The steel structure, completed last month, cantilevers nine metres over a ridge on Mount Isidor.

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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.

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The orchestration and oversubscription of the existing topography transforms landscape into built architecture which mediates between statics and dynamics, between stagnancy and new perspectives.

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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.

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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.