Hospitality typologies

The project offers a holistic and authentic eco-tourism experience inspired by Scandinavian traditions, with a strong emphasis on local culture. Located in Alsace, it combines Scandinavian influences with the region’s culinary heritage, wellness practices, and nature-centered lifestyle to create a fully immersive experience.

Design Philosophy

Positioned on a hillside above the village of Breitenbach, the hotel reinterprets the traditional Scandinavian hytte, a place for retreat, solitude, and reconnection with nature. Set within a protected Natura 2000 landscape, the development is designed to integrate gently into its surroundings.

Spatial Organization & Typologies

The 14 cabins are nestled among trees, natural shrubs, and wild grasses, appearing on the slope like scattered rock formations. Their layout balances privacy with open views. Small, lightweight, and unobtrusive, the cabins rest lightly on the terrain. Elevated on stilts, they can even be relocated, leaving the landscape undisturbed. All structures are clad in untreated chestnut wood sourced from the nearby hillside opposite the hotel and paired exclusively with generous glass openings.

Four distinct typologies create a cohesive family of forms, each with its own character. The single-level “Grass” cabins cluster around the central building and are accessible from all sides. The slender “Tree” and “Ivy” typologies rise vertically, offering panoramic views. At the top of the hill, the “Fjell” cabins accommodate families and provide sheltered outdoor spaces.

Material Palette

The material choices are minimal and rustic. Interiors are defined by light-toned timber, built-in furniture that envelops guests, framed landscape views, and subtle spatial contrasts, all reflecting the Nordic spirit of hygge.

The post Breitenbach Landscape Hotel was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

Chemin des Carrières, the Quarries’ Track, is a lace undulating in the landscape, an invitation to travel as our ambition behind the reconquest of the Rosheim-St Nabor railway in Alsace, France. Ominous, sometimes hidden, the vestiges of the railway still mark the reading of the site. The desire to create a route to serve the quarries had to adapt to the undulating landscapes of the sub-Vosges hills and the very form of the tracing tells the history of the landscape and the men. The journey to discover forgotten landscapes or to take a different view on everyday landscapes is addressed to both local users and tourists. Like the old track that offered a dual function (industrial and passenger transport), the route has a double vocation where the functional must rub shoulders with the imaginary of travel. Along the 11km path goes a story, which the stops split into five chapters of different sequences of landscapes offering varied universes and highlighting remarkable sites. Unusual elements punctuate the way, aiming at awakening the visitor’s senses, and water is encountered repeatedly.

Rosheim tells the story of the past. Realized by intertwined circles in Corten steel, the pavilion has a labyrinthine character and play with irregular concave and convex interiors, which the visitors are free to roam. The train tracks are conserved in that area, benches are built, and openings are created to open or close the sculpture to chosen views of the surrounding landscape allowing for viewing, seating – reflexion and contemplation. 

Boersch tells the story of water. The river, which historically allowed connection to the world and tells about the true cleanliness of a place. It is a dynamic element in the landscape, running to the ocean. We enlarge the riverbed and build a large open space amphitheater to access the water.

Leonardsau tells the story of the land. After a long green tunnel, two large corten steel plates amplify the opening effect at the end of the forest corridor to the open landscape, embodying a gate and opening a perspective towards Mont St-Odile, which develops the idea of discovery. Ottrott tells the story of travel. Former train station, the stop materializes the history of the railway and highlight the presence of the heritage (balance, bridge, crane, pump…). In a fabric of housing buildings, the reservoir, symbolizing water, and concrete crossings connect housing to historical elements and landscape.

Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter

Florent Michel @11h45

The post Chemin des Carrières was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.