Hotel Natura Extension | Rogla, Slovenia

Uninterrupted facade

The project is one of the first points of contact for visitors to the Rogla sports and tourist resort. Built as the final addition to a group of hotels, it represents perhaps the biggest visual departure from the recognizable expression of the previous interventions, which referenced the local, rurally developed landscape to a larger degree.

Design Challenge

Hotel Natura was designed as Rogla’s highest-rated hotel but was never fully realized. Much of the envisioned accommodations remained unbuilt, however the investor now intends to modify its typology and to extend the hotel with the addition of multi-purpose common areas and a recreational swimming pool. As a result, the project’s most challenging aspect was to tackle the expansion through a different design approach, where the new section will stand more “elegantly” next to the distinctive, heavy-weight existing complex.

Architectural Approach

Rogla’s romantic landscape imagery greatly informed the extension’s main design: to create a façade that is seamlessly converted into a roof. More specifically, the facade is visually transformed into a timber gable roof, which acts as a historic reference to the context. The timber is freely stacked and uncoated, thus gradually aging and coalescing in sync with the surrounding landscape. The new addition therefore does not reference the existing building as much as it does the surrounding forest and traditional rural development.

Functional Organization

The interior organization offers a clear division between the public and the private accommodation sections. The entire public program features taller storeys that open toward the forest to the north, while all the guestrooms are designed with slightly lower ceiling heights and are oriented toward the ski stadium to the south. The difference in floor heights is bridged by a new staircase operating as a “vertical hall”, as well as a new double-sided lift. This strategic layout offers uninterrupted views and allows natural lighting to enter the interior, including in the corridors as well as all the public spaces.