Documentation centre Gustav Mahler

Kontrapunkt

The competition aimed to transform the former keeper’s house of the Grandhotel Toblach into a permanent exhibition centre dedicated to Gustav Mahler. The composer spent his summer holidays in the Dolomites, where he wrote many of his most celebrated symphonies. Our intervention restores the house’s original exterior form, based on historical documentation, while removing all previous interior modifications. The external walls and roof are coated in black paint, clearly defining the physical boundaries of the project. Inside, an abstract wooden artefact is installed, reversible, autonomous, and detached from the outer walls. Echoing the contrapuntal compositions Mahler mastered, the geometry of the artefact interacts with the existing structure: at times touching the walls, at times pulling away to create double-height spaces. At the end of each arm, the original windows establish a visual and poetic dialogue with the surrounding mountain landscape.