Friday 21st January 2005
The hurricane winds continued, forcing us to stay inside most of the day. We were told that the weather station reported a maximum gust of 226 km/hr, something we were not inclined to disbelieve after the nearby mobile phone mast disappeared in a bright yellow flash. This was a benefit to the charrette as it gave everybody time to improve their ideas and presentation, ready for the visit of the Ebensee/Feuerkogel community team.
At 3.30, the Ebensee team turned up despite the extreme weather, including:
Erwin Zepperzauer, Deputy Mayor of Ebensee,
Gerd Beczwar, manager of the Cablecar,
Christian Feichtinger, Chamber of Commerce,
Thomas Lacherbauer, Chamber of Commerce,
Claus Wallinger, Official for Cultural Affairs,
Tom Andreas, Planning Architect,
Wolfgang Neuhuber, Ski School, Feuerkogel.
The groups presented their powerpoints:
Black Group: presented a detailed SWOT analysis (in german) with humorous and smart illustrations, ending with the visionary idea of a Centre for the Seasons, catering as an educational, relaxation and sporting centre for spring, summer, autumn and winter.
G-Force group, the all german language group, presented a very detailed analysis of the problems and new directions for Feuerkogel, ending with a detailed look at the Hotel project (started in 2004) adapted to a new brief for a conference centre. This had a very impressive skyline and included the cablecar – but the conditions outside made us realise that a building so oriented to summer use with so much glass would be hazardous in the more extreme winter climate.
Green Group presented a detailed SWOT analysis, followed by detailed ideas for a University study and research centre in Feuerkogel on the site of the Berghotel – a Berg Campus, reusing the hotels already here for residential use. There would be a high emphasis on sustainability going from zero emission targets in 5 years to total autonomy after a longer period. The project had detailed ideas on funding and constructional materials – constructing a building on the Berghotel site in much its present shape, and providing a protected walkway linking the hotels and chalets on the site.
Halo group presented a good analysis too (mostly bilingual), concluding with a detailed design for an education centre on the site of the Berghotel in the form of a large wing (matching one that would be in the town below). The scheme included detailed interiors and detailed proposals for wind protection to spaces around the cablecar station.
Team Gruppe presented their idea of the “Island on the Mountains” with nice ideas and images and a bilingual presentation.
CDs of the Presentations will be available on special request.
Following the presentations, the deputy mayor and the cablecar manager proposed their thanks for all the hard work by the groups during the week – congratulating them on their observant analysis of the situation in Feuerkogel. This work will help with a working party for the future of the resort, who will report in May 2005. What it has shown is that the simple idea of replacing the Berghotel with just another hotel is not the right answer. The previous owner of the Edelweiss hotel, the father of Alex Neubacher, closed the proceedings with his thanks to all for their successful work.
We were all so happy at the outcome that the rest of the evening was a party – ideas of another plenary session on ArchiCAD were quietly forgotten.
One event marred our relaxed mood. One of the Nottingham students went out for a nocturnal tobogganing expedition late at night and ran head-first into a chalet. She is now in Linz Hospital recovering from surgery. This cast a pall over the delegates for the remainder of the night. We have many people to thank for their capable actions during the night to save our student from what might have been worse.
Next year, we shall most likely return to the combination of plenaries and workshops, with channels for GDL and other specialities, using a more exactly defined brief so that delegates can get down to using ArchiCAD earlier.