Haus Kienzerleweg

Bad Kohlgrub is a small spa village in the Ammergau Alps, an hour or so south of Munich, sitting high enough to be the highest moorland spa in Germany. It is quiet, green country: the Hörnle rising directly behind the village with a little cable car to its meadows, the wide Murnauer Moos spreading north, and walking, cycling and cross-country ski trails running straight from the door. The painted village of Oberammergau, the monastery at Ettal and Ludwig the Second's palace at Linderhof are all close by, and the lake at Staffelsee is a short drive for a summer swim. You can come the slow way, by train, and walk the last fifteen minutes.

Haus Kienzerleweg was designed and built by Clemens Böhmer, an architect based in the village whose work is rooted in timber. It is a solid-wood house, insulated with wood fibre and naturally ventilated, clear and minimalist but warm, a modern reading of the way these mountains have always built in wood. The ground floor is one open room, kitchen, living and dining held together and gently divided by a tall cupboard that works as a piece of furniture, and it opens straight onto a south-facing terrace and the garden, with the Ammergau peaks in full view. Four double bedrooms are shared between the upper floor and the lower level, and upstairs there is a small, quiet reading room kept just for the view.