Christine Girardi Austria by Richard Powers

Christine Girardi Austria

Pictures Richard Powers

Words Dominic Bradbury

Pfänder Mountain, with its cable car station and transmission mast, towers over the Austrian border city of Bregenz. From here, you can see across to Germany and Switzerland and Lake Constance is spread out like a glimmering platter. Here, within a small hamlet of houses gathered on the mountain top, interior designer Christine Girardi commissioned a unique and escapist haven for herself and her family.

Living in Bregenz, Girardi and her family knew the mountain well and often hiked up the mountain at weekends. The found a small one room cabin for sale and asked local architect Philip Lutz to replace the cabin with a new and contemporary home. Lutz pushed the new, shingle clad timber house into the hillside, preserving the existing trees on two sides, and created a wooden jewel box that makes the most of the dramatic views.