Architecture

The landscape around Davos was originally shaped by the wooden houses of the Walser people, who moved here from Upper Valais in the 13th century. The foundation stone for the highest town in the Alps was laid at the end of the 19th century: With its rise to become a world-famous mountain health resort, the then tranquil scattered settlement of Davos experienced a construction boom. And gave rise to a new architectural style.

A new type of building was needed to treat tuberculosis patients with sun and fresh air: instead of small windows to keep out the cold, there were light-flooded rooms with wind protection. And balconies facing the sun. To protect against dangerous avalanches in snow-covered Davos, the houses were covered with flat roofs. Speaking of flat roofs: in Davos, the flat roofs are actually not flat at all - they are slightly inclined towards the middle, so that the meltwater flows invisibly through the house through a roof kennel. Through the middle, so to speak. The regulation to use a flat roof on buildings still applies in urban Davos today.

In addition to the flat roofs of Davos, the Davos Congress Center is an architectural highlight. It was designed by renowned architects in four construction phases. A striking entrance portal was designed as a landmark for the world-famous Davos congress venue. Another eye-catcher is the free-floating, statically spectacular honeycomb ceiling that spans the new plenary hall for 1,800 participants.

Based on local building traditions such as the Davos flat roof and consciously taking into account the climate and lighting conditions, the architects Gigon & Guyer designed four interlocking cubes for the Kirchner Museum Davos. This museum architecture is considered groundbreaking because it combines functionality and aesthetics, architectural intrinsic value and service to art in an extraordinary way. The AlpenGold Hotel Davos is also worth seeing. It is enclosed in a bronze-colored metal shell, which earned the hotel the nickname "the Golden Egg".

There is a clear cliché about the Walsers: "Walsers, originally Alemanni, only build wooden houses. And they are individualists who live in scattered settlements." What is the truth in this cliché? It is true that scattered settlements and wooden buildings are common among the Walsers. The single-farm settlement is typical for the Walsers, especially for the early settlers. In later phases, single farms often developed into "neighbourhoods" (hamlets) and entire villages. Certain single farms were also abandoned over time because Walsers moved to a village.

The environmental conditions influenced the way the Walser built their houses. Most Walser buildings were made of wood. However, it would be wrong to say that the Walsers only built wooden houses. There is no such thing as a "Walser house" that you see everywhere. There are different types depending on the settlement region. So we have to talk about a variety of Walser house types, for which the building materials that were available in abundance in the area were used.

The Sunniberg Bridge is a so-called cable-stayed bridge and consists of four pillars that are slightly bent outwards - a world first. Normally, the roadway of a cable bridge hangs deep below the top of the pylons on a steep, radial cable fan. Here it is located at a height of sixty metres in the upper quarter of the pillars. The unusual combination of a raised roadway with flat cables makes the structure delicate and transparent: only a narrow line cuts through the landscape.

Dynamic and part of the landscape
The bridge is not only an experience from a distance, the crossing is also impressive: the parallel cable harps create a permeable driving space. The curve ensures dynamism and opens up new views. In short: despite crossing the valley, the Sunniberg Bridge manages to strike a balance between subordination to the landscape and independence as a symbol of civil engineering.