ÅRE - SLANTEN

TIMELINE: 2019-

LOCATION: Sweden

TYPE: MASTER PLANNING, RESORT, HOSPITALITY

Client: skistar

STATUS: ONGOING

ARCHITECTURE DIRECTION, 359 TEAM: WILL HENTSCHEL, Jacob Wilhelm

Project Overview

The World Cup Lodge at Slänten is located at Åre Resort in Jämtland County of Sweden. Located between Åre center village and Rödkullen, Slänten is the base hub of competitive events. With the success of these World Cup and competitive events at Åre, the Slänten area at the VM8 base has been identified as an area for upgrade and improvement. The intention for the improvement and redevelopment of this base area is to improve skiing return, enhance out-of-base lift reliability in bad weather situations, improve skier services and parking, and create a unique lodging property that captures the energy of the area.

Existing Conditions

The existing Slänten site is located alongside the VM8 lift, a small SkiStar shop, a small restaurant, Bygget nightclub, and several housing options such as the Liengården hotel. The primary use of the site is for the loading and staging of VM8 lift, as well as providing roughly 100 spaces for skier day-use parking. Due to the limited parking at the site, undesirable overflow parking occurs along Årevägen road. The arrival experience to the site is also negatively impacted by the fact that the site sits on a very narrow and steep hillside with no stairways.

As the Slänten site sits adjacent to the VM8 lift, there is a prominent opportunity to integrate ski-in-ski-outdevelopment and utilize the exceptional mountain and lake views. The FIS World Cup venue is also located nearby the site. Improvements could be made to strengthen the skier connection between these spaces and the current ski back to the VM8 lift. The VM8 lift is often closed due to hazardous winds which requires improvements to solve the impacted skier circulation.