Deep in the beloved Tyrolean mountains and yet a mere ten minutes from the hustle of Innsbruck lies Lanserhof - a "place for the senses and for peace and quiet". The luxurious health centre also readily suggests a symbiosis between Nature and architecture, one fashioned to a high level down to the last detail. Modern and traditional design, premium materials and 20th-century art intermingle here. Lanserhof is a centre to which anyone suffering from stress can come to relax and rebuild.
Architect Dr Regina Dahmen-Ingenhoven of the design studio in Düsseldorf that bears her name has created a futuristic looking medical, therapy and beauty centre on 1,500 square metres of land, pairing Nature and hi-tech, traditional and alternative approaches to medicine, and innovation and tradition in an ambitious spatial concept. "The hypermodern house fuses apparent contrasts into an outstanding health concept in Europe", is how the magazine Vogue describes Lanserhof. Lanserhof CEO Andreas Wieser, whose role in the health hotel is at once that of developer and visionary, has spent recent years sensitively stripping the former holiday hotel of all Alpine kitsch through a variety of conversion measures. The lobby, dining room, indoor pool, sauna and new generously dimensioned rooms are of a pared-down design that is almost monastic. Wieser explains the philosophy behind the concept thus: "Lanserhof's architecture addresses the 'whole person' in a future-driven manner, creating space for the further development and adaptation of personalities."
The crux of the project for Dr Dahmen-Ingenhoven was to create an architecture that "welcomes people with open arms" as well as intimating a healing effect at first glance. The "gentle" design is accordingly defined by flowing forms, continuous flooring, rounded-off corners, and soft colours and materials. The architect encapsulates the thinking behind her scheme as follows: "An architecture free of clichés joins with novel design to deliver a new life feeling and release positive energy.". Special importance in this feel-good world attaches to light as well as to peace and quiet. The lighting is never direct, dazzling or frightening. "Healing light" is the term Dr Dahmen-Ingenhoven uses to describe an ingenious indirect lighting scheme that evokes a range of, at times, veritably worshipful moods.
The open spatial concept establishes three luminous axes that allow natural light to flood into the inner spaces of the therapy unit. The individual areas flow seamlessly into each other to create an open, free sense of space. A translucent wall depicting the marvellous scenery of the Northern Chain separates the massage and doctors' rooms from the reception area without impeding the flow of energy. In this way, a part of Nature has been integrated into the space that can actually be experienced in the vicinity of Lanserhof. Cubic recessed fittings and objects round the spaces off. Furnishings have been integrated into the wall areas for the most part and were specially conceived for the health centre. Targeted use is made of coloured elements, lighting features and clusters of atmospheric detail to invigorate the mind. Lambent yellow symbolises the sun, the primeval force in energy - it is intended to stimulate and positively influence guests. The wall design is reminiscent of bubbles of oxygen rising as well as of water as an element. "That has a calming and deeply relaxing effect", as Dr Dahmen-Ingenhoven explains. The felt-clad soft room is cavelike and serves as an agreeable quiet area in which the emotions are gently aroused.
The wet area, which has been fitted out with a variety of blue-stained Bisazza mosaic tiles, comprises a Kneipp landscape nestling around the Kneipp pool. Variations on the mosaic scheme make for a pleasant atmosphere in each of the pool rooms. The two Shiatsu rooms have been provided with walnut flooring that symbolises the link with Mother Earth - the upshot being ritual spaces with a well-nigh mystical atmosphere. Jointless epoxy flooring was selected for the other areas that, with the exception of the Kneipp area, interlinks all spaces and acts to remove any sense of stasis. There is continuous flux between walls, floors and ceilings. The design's purist, minimalist formal vocabulary is specifically designed to induce calm and order as an antidote to the surfeit of sensory excitation in the world.
The design of the door and window hardware selected is wholly attuned to this process. The architect opted for the FSB 1063 door handle collection in Aluminium with white Corian gripping sections - the outcome of work with the Ingenhoven offices - plus FSB 3778 window handles, the FSB 3878 door stop and the FSB 4223 hardware for glass doors, all in AluGrey®. A key feature on FSB 1063 stock is the circumferential groove separating the part of the handle that is "handled" from the "works", i.e. the shank. Corian grips are distinguished by their pleasant haptic properties and the quality and durability of the material. The door and window furniture modestly subordinates itself to the overall design concept and directly correlates to various fitments in Corian around it. A formal analogy between architectural details and handle design has arisen as a result. Regina Dahmen-Ingenhoven describes the FSB products with white Corian grips used as being "immaterial, unreal, dreamlike".
Photos: Holger Knauf, Düsseldorf
