REKA Holiday village, Urnäsch (CH)
New building
Client: Feriendorf Urnäsch AG
Location: CH-9107 Urnäsch, Appenzellerstraße 11
Architecture: Dietrich Untertrifaller with Roland Gnaiger
Construction: 2006 – 2007
Area: 5,100 m²
Programme: 50 holiday flats with 2-5 rooms, communal buildings, youth centre, multifunctional hall with communal kitchen, kindergarten, school kitchen, library, house with small animals in stables
Photos: Bruno Klomfar
Team
Helmut Brunner, Norbert Haumer (Project management), Fritz Holger, Ena Lloret Kristensen, Sven Meller, Michael Porath, Günther Prechter, Doris Tahedi
Text: Gerlinde Jüttner
Partners
Statics timber: SJB Kempter Fitze, Herisau
Statics concrete: Moggi, Herisau
Building services: Euplan, Herisau
Building physics: Weithas, Hard
Electrics: Graf, Herisau
Landscape: Engeler, Herisau
Site management: Amann Partner, Stein
Awards
- Gutes Bauen 2006-2010 Ostschweiz , Award
- Holzpreis Lignum Schweiz, Award
- Europäischer Dorferneuerungspreis, Award
Versatile holiday home for families
The REKA holiday village is located on a gently sloping site in the foothills of the Alps in eastern Switzerland. The 50 flats for families with children in the three L-shaped wings are built to the Minergie-Eco standard using local timber. They are docked in a comb-like fashion to four interconnected communal buildings with reception, event rooms, indoor pool, kindergarten and petting zoo.
Like a buffer, they shield the residential buildings and inner courtyards from the noise and dust of the cantonal road. A subway provides safe access to the play areas and the swimming area on the Urnäsch river.
The indoor pool in the third house
The row of communal buildings shields the flat blocks behind from the street.
Four houses for commonality
In the row of four single-storey communal buildings, the first one provides the main entrance with reception, as well as the youth centre and a multifunctional hall with a communal kitchen for events. The next building houses the kindergarten, school kitchen, library and TV room. The cloakrooms for the indoor swimming pool, which is located in the third building, are in the basement. The fourth house has space for small animal stables. Contact with these animals and looking after them is part of the holiday village concept.
Rough sawn boards and green roofs
A sustainable timber construction rises above the basement storeys and reinforced concrete building plinths. The façades are clad with rough-sawn Norway spruce boards – horizontally on the residential buildings and vertically on the communal buildings. The extensively greened flat roofs integrate the development, which can mostly be seen at an angle from above, into the surroundings. Behind the communal buildings, ramps run along the main axis of the development with access to the holiday flats.
Family-friendly flats
The three L-shaped, two-storey residential wings form two largely enclosed and one half-open courtyard. The flats with two to five rooms in timber construction offer a relaxed atmosphere, to which spacious balconies with views of the green courtyards also contribute.
What are REKA holiday villages?
The first Reka holiday village for families opened its doors in Switzerland back in 1962. The accommodation provided by the Swiss Travel Fund (Reka) Cooperative is open to everyone. Anyone can also receive the subsidised Reka money – either as a fringe benefit from their employer or as a private individual. The concept is still a success.
