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Concrete visitor centre by Iseppi/Kurath in Alps

Location: Viamala Gorge between Thusis and Zillis in Grison

Commissioner: Viamala Infra Betriebsgenossenschaft

Architects: Iseppi / Kurath GmbH, Ivano Iseppi and Stefan Kurath, Thusis/Zürich

Building Costs BKP 1-9: 1,400,000 CHF

Cooperators: Arno Deplazes, Ivano Iseppi, Stefan Kurath, Yvonne Michel, Jonas Rütimann, Monika Steiner

Material: concrete, spruce and ash, steel

This gabled concrete visitor centre by local architects Iseppi/Kurath is perched on the edge of a 60-metre gorge in the Swiss Alps (+ slideshow).

Architects Ivano Iseppi and Stefan Kurath were asked to develop the Viamala Gorge Visitor Centre as part of an ongoing project aimed at improving infrastructure for visitors to an area in the Grison Alps.

The brief was to improve existing facilities and provide access to a set of stairs constructed in 1903, which descend into the gorge. The building replaces a kiosk that previously stood on the site, marking the transition from a road to the stairway.

Visitors enter across a forecourt and buy a ticket that gives them access to a concrete staircase leading to an exhibition space sheltered underneath the centre.

This connects to the top of the old stone stairway that continues into the gorge, which visitors can explore before returning via a second staircase at the far end of the building.

Photography is by Laura Egger, unless otherwise stated.

Here's a project description from Iseppi/Kurath:

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