Bergraum

Set in the small hamlet of Höfle on the floor of the Kleinwalsertal valley in Austria's Vorarlberg, Bergraum stands among working farmhouses and grazing pasture, framed on every side by the peaks of the Allgäu Alps. The valley opens south into the Wildental, a hiking and ski-touring corridor accessible directly from the property, with the Zaferna chairlift 1.1 kilometres away. The hamlet's quiet rhythm, the surrounding cattle and chickens of the neighbouring Moosbrugger farm, and the panoramic mountain horizon define the setting more than any single architectural gesture.

Designed in 2015 by Kaufbeuren-based studio Stadtmüller Burkhard Graf Architekten, Bergraum reads from the outside as an understated Alpine Stadl, a traditional barn typology adapted to fit the village's existing built rhythm. Inside, the architecture opens into a double-height living, dining, and kitchen area with exposed structural beams, a sleeping gallery under the eaves, an 8-metre window with a built-in seating bench on the western long side, and a south-facing picture window framing the Wildental view. The material palette is reduced to wood, concrete, and glass, with a fireplace, two saunas (Finnish and steam), and a 22 kW EV wallbox addressing both the contemporary and the elemental. Run by the Berktold family as a personal rental rather than a managed property.