Architecture as an opportunity: rethinking construction
Abstract
In the Alpine valleys, life is under pressure. Since very few children live in these areas, schools in small towns such as Vrin in the Lumnezia valley (Grisons, Switzerland) are closing, and infrastructures and public life are more and more concentrated in larger centres. Moreover, communities behave differently nowadays: people live and move around the whole valley, and old villages are becoming residential areas. While most of the time architecture in urban areas is driven by the investors’ interest, things are different in the mountains. In the Alps, where statistics and the market are not leading criteria for constructing new buildings, architects can explore new directions and think about innovative and specific solutions that may accompany the development of living societies. The recent works by Gion A. Caminada in Valendas and Almens, the buildings by Capaul & Blumenthal or the architecture projects by Men Duri Arquint in Chur are but a few examples of a different way of looking at the opportunities that architecture may offer to Alpine communities.
