It was introduced during “Premiere KliamaHotel – Punto di svolta per il turismo”, a conference where the guest of honour was professor Werner Sobek, engineer and architect, director of the Institut für Leichtbau Entwerfen und Konstruieren (ILEK) – Institute of lightweight structures and structural engineering laboratory (Stuttgart/Frankfurt and New York). Leader of a group of over 200 researchers and president of the German society for sustainable building (DGNB), Werner Sobek gave an impressive and inspiring speech in which he supplied irrefutable data and research on the role of building in the energy balance sheet (50% of world energy consumption is due to building) and on the necessity to take immediate action to reduce the environmental impact of the entire sector, also during building demolition. He gave examples of active buildings, constructed with extremely lightweight structures, mutated by nature, able to reduce to a minimum the use of concrete and the ‘grey’ mass of a traditional construction.
Equally interesting was the presentation of the scheme by Matteo Thun for the Bella Vista Trafoi hotel, part of the Gustav Thöni family, whose building will be concluded in 2011. Using a series of watercolours, Thun explained how the design was conceived for the Bella Vista Trafoi, a hotel that will be camouflaged in nature and made with local materials, obtained a few kilometres away from the site. Bella Vista has no form but becomes landscape, a soft landscape that resembles the hills found at the foot of the Ortles. The land creates a protective cloak, on a site where more than ever nature demostrates its true potential. This design concept has already won it an award, the first KlimaHotel pre-recommedation, awarded to Gustav Thöni during the conference.
The new certification extends the CasaClima/KlimaHouse criteria into the hotel sector (regulations currently defined only for Alpine territory): the KlimaHotel seal declares that architect and builder have made a commitment to adhering to a series of criteria and regulations that respect nature that can reinforce management quality and improve profitability in the sector. KlimaHotel also offers a guarantee for guests since it establishes criteria of quality that do not regard just the dispersion of energy but extend to the entire life of the hotel. Guests at a KlimaHotel can be sure to respect nature, to experience a low-energy building and at the same time are guaranteed a holiday that brings them closer to the culture of the place.
So in choosing a hotel, watch out for the seals then and not just the stars!
