Modulverantwortung: Peter Althaus
Lehrteam: Peter Althaus, Christoph Flury, Matthias Winter, Felix Wettstein, Stefan Wülser, Thomas Kohlhammer
Assistant: Shehrie Islamaj

Leukerbad revisited

Leukerbad, a famous spa and ski town in the Canton of Valais, is a classic example of the undesirable developments of the late twentieth century and of an ongoing new beginning. The place tells the story of a turbulent past marked by far-reaching transformations. After the election of Otto G. Loretan in 1981, the commune made considerable investments. The success was of short terms as the investments were made in a non-transparent manner and the municipality quickly fell into bankruptcy which has left its mark. One of them being the town hall (Rathaus) wich will be our main concerne in this semester.

The town hall of Leukerbad, an architectural product of the 1990s, was built at a time when optimistic speculation justified the excessive scale of its structure. Today, the building is partially vacant and stands on a multi-storey underground car park that also serves as a bus terminal.
We will study how the ruins of the late twentieth century can be transformed into an innovative kind of tourism, as it remains an essential economic engine for a mountain community like Leukerbad, providing jobs for residents and thus helping to encourage the younger generation to stay. With the idea of building a new station for the Torrent funiculars, which are soon up for renewal, the immediate vicinity to the town hall, asks for the building to be transformed into a hub for sustainable tourism and a clear place of arrival. We are striving for a mixed form of housing that will address the widespread problem of vacant apartments in many tourist towns. We will also consider new housing concepts such as the possibility of integrating apartments for seniors, which is required from the canton. Together with innovative opportunities for accommodations and traditional apartments, they could form a multifunctional residential building that integrates the existing offer of Leukerbad, tourism, baths, physiotherapy etc. A purely mono-functional residential building seems unreasonable to us. Instead, we are looking for an inspiring building that represents an intelligent synthesis of the existing fabric and creates a new centre in Leukerbad.

Site Visit: Wednesday, 28.02.24