Designviz
From a Finnish ski village that encourages its guests to ski directly from its pitched rooftop to the slopes, to a luxury villa complex in China, Design Viz goes international. by Stephen Holmes
Levi ski resort, Finland This exciting new ski resort is to be built in Levi, Finland, transforming what would otherwise be another hotel complex into a snowy piste that forms part of the landscape. “Instead of creating design solutions that aim at dealing with snow by shovelling or moving it, we want to create a village that utilises the full potential of snow,” explains Hanna Johansson, project leader at Danish firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) responsible for the design. The pitched rooftop mimics a ski slope or skiable manmade mountain that guests will be encouraged to use to get to the slopes straight from the hotel doors on its top floors. “When it is caught on the façade the window frames become a living part of the landscape, adapting to changes in the weather. The light granite façade enhances the intimate relation with the nature.” The four buildings arc around a central square to create a new bustling village plaza at the heart of the resort, which is sheltered from the wind and yet open to the surrounding landscape. The plaza allows ice skating and music events and is connected to a bowl like yard created by the lower interior heights of the new buildings, complete with cafés and bars. The intimate atmosphere of the spaces created here contrasts the open views from the summit and makes great use of the site’s proximity to the slopes. The project was the winning entry in a competition to transform the 47,000m² ski resort and recreational space in Lapland. BIG’s team of architects and visual designers built the model of the proposal in 3D using Rhino after several conceptual sketching stages. The final renderings were then elaborated using Photoshop, to create the snow-topped soft curves of the undulating roofs of the four buildings and the unique character of a ski slope skyline that becomes an inhabited mountaintop. It is yet another project by BIG that shows how much fun modern functional architecture can be. ■ big.dk
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