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Youth Hostel Gerlos | Krimml, Austria | 2021
[lechner & lechner architects]

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The Youth Hostel Gerlosplatte is located in the Austrian Alps at an altitude of 1700 meters. The main goal of the hostel is to create a cost-effective and environmentally friendly environment for school trips. The hostel is built with regional solid wood construction and uses a biomass district heating system for heating. Additionally, the hostel generates its own electricity through photovoltaic panels and mainly uses coach buses for transportation to reduce individual traffic. The project also uses leftover wood from the cross-laminated timber walls to produce furniture. The hostel covers an area of approximately 7500 square meters and can accommodate 450 guests, while the indoor sports areas cover about 2200 square meters.

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In terms of architectural and landscape design, the main structure of the youth hostel building is a longitudinal wooden construction. The urban and spatial design creates a south-facing U-shaped village square between the main building and the road, which serves as a semi-public area between the youth hostel and the surrounding buildings. Two side wings accompany this square at ground level, sinking into the landscape and covered by vegetation.

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Approaching the youth hostel building, a simple wooden structure can be seen, which provides access to the main building from the village square via a single-story glazed area. The height of this area corresponds to the poured wings of the building that flank the village square, allowing the main building to float over it like a bridge. As visitors penetrate deeper into the landscape along the course of the village square, numerous airspaces between the floors of the simple structure provide visual permeability and offer more and more views of the lower lying landscape. The lobby is located on the ground floor and is accessible via ramps centrally positioned over the entire width of the longitudinal structure. The vertical accessibility of the ramps and the numerous airspaces between the floors offer rich cross-views of a three-story climbing wall that begins in the sports area from the second basement.

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The ramps of the lobby serve not only as access to the various levels of the building, but also as a three-dimensional promenade connecting the various functions of the youth hostel. This ramp creates a “boulevard” that offers visitors a unique experience of the interior of the building, connecting the sports and leisure areas. Text description by the architects.

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Source: www.lechner-lechner.at
Photography by: Julian Hoeck 
Design Team: Christine Lechner, Horst Lechner, Paul Lechner , Lukas Ployer , Michael Trixl
Clients: Joerg Neumaier , Arne Tammen
Structural Consultants: Thomas Forsthuber
Interior Designer: Stehaphan Keil
Contractors: EHRENREICH BaugmbH