Avalanche Shelter in Surlej, Engadin

The project proposal presents itself as an experimental attempt to meet, in a poetical manner, one of the many concrete needs of the Alpine landscape, namely the protection against avalanches, establishing a new form of interdisciplinary relationship between architecture, landscape architecture and engineering. The goal of the project is to produce a new spatial and infrastructural archetype, truly able to establish an interaction between the need for protection and the perception of said protection. In the past, the great Alpine infrastructure was admired as a masterpiece of technique and innovation and considered a tangible sign of a transformation through which the landscape becomes a living space. Nowadays, infrastructure is generally considered as necessary as it is missing any real value and meaning in its relationship with the landscape and social context. By establishing a fine balance between architecture and formal rigour, the project demonstrates the possibility to assign, besides the image, a new meaning to the avalancheprotection infrastructure, by generating, through the interdisciplinary nature of the project design, a radical change in the condition of usability and integration of the infrastructure into the Alpine landscape.