Going Up Going Down

Lech is a village of two faces: a picturesque and well maintained overground ambiance in contrast to a pragmatic and chaotic underground network of basements and connection tunnels.

Model left in collaboration with Godwin Cheung & Martin Wild

Removing the plots and the streets as a densification strategy enables to create a new circulation network based on these two sides of the village. Pedestrian over ground walkways incorporate the incoming pathways of the surrounding mountains into the village fabric. Supplementary, an efficient underground transportation network and infrastructure equips the village with missing functions (such as cultural and communal spaces) which cannot find space in the picturesque over ground pattern.

Points of encounter - centers - are formed by the areas where these two networks meet. Thereby, Lech is redefined to a multicentered village, offering spaces for cultural and commercial activities, sport and recreation, administrative infrastructure and communal spaces.