Nature & Architecture
ARCHITECTURE HOTEL IN THE HIGH BLACK FOREST
Black Forest culture meets award-winning architecture. Respecting the wisdom of nature and the longings of the people who come here, and bringing the two into harmony. The boundaries between nature and architecture blur. Conceived as a place of sophisticated simplicity.
Architecture Awards
AWARDS WE HAVE BEEN PROUD TO RECEIVE
- Architecture Award 2016 – New Building in the Black Forest
- Award 2017 – Forum Weißtanne (Silver Fir)
- Architecture Award 2019 – Exemplary Building in the District of Lörrach
- Architecture Route Award 2023 – Bauwerk Schwarzwald
KEYWORDS / GUIDING THOUGHTS / IDEAS ON THE DESIGN WORK FOR “HOTEL DERWALDFRIEDEN”
BY C. LANGENBACH
- “HOUSE ON THE MOUNTAIN”
SOUGHT: A MEMORABLE ARCHITECTURAL FIGURE FOR THE YOUNG “HOTEL
WALDFRIEDEN”. SYMBOLICALLY FORMED / SHAPED / GROWN FROM THE POWERFUL, TRADITIONAL BUILDING CULTURE OF THE REGION / DEVELOPED AS A CONTINUATION OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE HIP-ROOFED FARMHOUSE / THIS IS ABOUT TRANSLATING THAT LANGUAGE INTO THE PRESENT.
- IT IS ALSO ABOUT “MOMENTS OF MEMORY” / ABOUT THE POETIC UNFOLDING OF A BUILDING, LIVING AND WORKING CULTURE THAT HAS GROWN OVER CENTURIES WITHIN THIS LANDSCAPE.
- IT IS ABOUT IMAGES AS RECOGNISABLE SIGNS FOR TRANSLATING THE POWERFUL FORM OF THE “TRADITIONAL BLACK FOREST ROOF” / AND ABOUT LIVED EMOTION.
- ALSO KEPT IN VIEW: THE COMPLEX SHIFTS IN FUNCTIONAL AND TECHNICAL FORCES AT PLAY.
- ALSO PRESENT: BOTH THE OLD AND NEW CULTURE OF SHELTER / WARMTH / CLOSENESS / DEPTH OF EXPERIENCE, AS WELL AS THEMES OF A THOROUGHLY CONTEMPORARY FORM FOR “HOME”. - THE FURTHER-DEVELOPED, NEWLY RESHAPED “HIP ROOF” BRINGS TOGETHER THE MOST DIVERSE DESIGN THEMES HERE.
- “HOTEL” AS A LANDMARK HERE, IN THIS VAST AND MAJESTIC LANDSCAPE, CANNOT BE AN ARBITRARY FORM, PULLED FROM SOME “DRAWER OF MODERNITY” / RATHER, IT IS ABOUT THE SPECIFIC QUALITIES OF A NEW BUILDING IMAGE THAT SAFEGUARDS IDENTITY AND CORRESPONDS TO THIS CONTINUED “REGIONAL LANGUAGE OF TODAY” / WITHOUT COPIES / REPLICAS / FALSE SENTIMENT.
- TIMBER CONSTRUCTION, OVER ITS 1,000-YEAR DEVELOPMENT, SHOWS A WONDERFUL UNFOLDING OF EVER MORE REFINED CARPENTRY TECHNIQUE / WITH CAREFUL STRUCTURAL AND DETAIL DEVELOPMENT / CLOSE TIES TO ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC FORMS. ALWAYS KEPT IN VIEW: THE FORMATIVE EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC, WORKING AND LIVING CONDITIONS, WHICH ALSO RESHAPE BUILDING FORMS / THE “HIP ROOF” REMAINS A “PROTOTYPE” / AND A RECURRING THEME IN OUR LONGING FOR SHELTER: SECURITY / WARMTH / SOFTNESS / PEACEFULNESS.
- IT IS ABOUT THE COHERENT LINKING OF PROCESSES / OF FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS.
- “AESTHETIC COHERENCE WITHIN FUNCTIONAL SIMPLICITY WOULD BE THE GOAL, THE JOY AND THE POETRY OF THIS ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGE.”
- “HOTEL WALDFRIEDEN” DISPLAYS CLEAR FLOOR-PLAN ORGANISATION / A COHERENT ARRANGEMENT OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF SPACE / AREAS THAT FLOW SOFTLY INTO ONE ANOTHER.
- THE GOAL: COMMUNICATIVE, LIVELY OPENNESS / PERMEABILITY AND IMMEDIATE LEGIBILITY OF SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS.
- CLARITY OF THE OVERALL LAYOUT, BOTH FROM OUTSIDE AND WITHIN.
- ROOMS, EACH WITH ITS OWN OUTDOOR SPACE: TERRACES / SKY / RAIN / SUN / STORM / SNOW.
- VIEWS OF THE MOST INCREDIBLE LANDSCAPES / THE WONDERS OF THIS LAND IN “LIFE-GIVING” EXPANSE / SILENCE… AND OF 13 COWS GRAZING IN THE MEADOW…
“Our personal aim from the very beginning: to create something that blends harmoniously into the village setting, as a unified whole — never a foreign body, but rather understated, and yet still present, modern and of the highest quality.”
Volker Hupfer
