Strata Hotel - Extension to Residence Königswarter

Located on a steep hillside in the Italian Dolomites this new-built hotel has been developed as the interweaving of the free-flowing topography- indexed and organized by series of timber strips- and the serial sequence of apartment units perpendicular to it. Since the overall shape was developed from the local planning guidelines, the linear distribution of units and the views and sun directions, it is a resultant of the constant negotiations among all these parameters as well as a topological answer to the picturesque typologies frequently built in the area. The volume is formed as a series of strata that as an artificial entity maintains a dialogue with its natural environment. The bands surround the volume at different scales, peeling off from it, flowing into the landscape and blurring the boundaries of the building. The balconies become in-between zones that negotiate the internal rationale of the apartments with the exterior as extension of the topography.