Tracing the Terrain

Set within the natural landscape of Monte Verità, “Tracing the Terrain” proposes collective, temporary housing for cross-border workers, organized along a continuous open-air pathway. The pathway and its architecture follow the terrain’s natural contours at a small, non-imposing scale, blending into the site’s diverse building typologies while forming a walkable sequence of shared and private spaces. The project aims to extract the typical interior hallway condition and reframe it as an outdoor social connector that simultaneously provides pockets of opportunity to escape into nature. Through warm and bright natural materials and light steel-frame structures, the project enables gentle transitions between interior and exterior spaces for community-based living to be grounded in nature, light, and air.