2025
On the border between France and Italy: the old gravel road with its hairpins and the forts on the ridge. They show the military side of the passes – buildings whose far-visible position asserts presence and control over the crossing.
Made for my master’s thesis “vom Passhaus” (On the Pass House) at Graz University of Technology (Institute of Spatial Design, supervised by Prof. Alexander Lehnerer, 2026). A pass house stands where the road reaches its highest point – as a hospice, post and customs station, inn, road keeper’s house or military post, often isolated and snowed in for months. The thesis treats it as a building type of its own and traces its history from the Roman Alpine roads and the medieval hospices to the tunnels that took away the passes’ importance from 1882 onwards, and to the tourism of the high Alpine roads.
A massive stone base, small windows, the entrance on the upper floor, an orientation set by the wind: much about the pass house can be explained by its location, climate and the institution behind it – but not the impression it leaves when it suddenly appears after the last bend. So I visited the houses myself, photographed and drew them. From this way of looking came hand drawings and designs for new pass houses.