Obd’r Lech

The house is in the municipality of Lech, five minutes by foot across the River Lech, 1540 metres above sea level. The wooden house was built 600 years ago by skilled Walser carpenters and was recently given a sensitive architectural renovation. It is rented to (carefully chosen) guests. The task presented to the Atelier was to convey a love of old and new forms of quality and of architecture. This began with finding a name, in a team together with German studies scholar and culture theorist Roland Jörg. With the name “Obd’r Lech” this house in the centre of the Alps but at the same time far off the beaten tourist track pays its respects to the local dialect, the village atmosphere and with a grin adds a request “Lecheln bitte” (“smile please”, a wordplay on Lech/lächeln – Lech/to smile). Contrary to what you might expect, on the first page you do not encounter a deep blue sky, rich green meadows or powdery snow but rather a typographical composition with figures. These are revealed as poetic proof of the qualities of this house. Already in the first “slider” with photographic impressions by Martin Mischkulnig one is drawn into the fantastic landscape, architecture, and atmosphere of the place. Short texts augment the visual narrative. Interaction is used for virtual tours by means of 360° panorama photography or ortho-photographical winter/summer slides that can be slid over each other to make comparisons. The design of the website hovers between tradition and modernism, encourages contacts, is entertaining and at the same time informative. And the whole thing is suitable for portrait and landscape format, for both big and small screens.