The Pila ski resort, between an edelweiss and a wind rose

The Pila ski area, in the Aosta Valley, will have a new ski lift: the cable car designed by the DeCarloGualla architecture studio, founded by Jacopo De Carlo and Andrea Gualla. With a speed of six meters per second, it will allow people to travel the total length of 3.8 km and a vertical drop of 923 m in about fifteen minutes, with a capacity of 2,400 persons per hour. The competition won by the project aimed to modernize the two current facilities, dating back to the Eighties: the Pila-Gorraz and Couis-Drink chairlifts, in order to connect the center of Pila, at 1800 meters above sea level, with the Platta del Grevon, at 2723.

The departure of the new cable car will develop near the arrival station of the existing Aosta-Pila connection system. By creating a new in hub in town, it was designed to be able to organize large flows of people, with two long roofs that intertwine in order to connect the existing structure with the new one and welcome visitors, bringing them immediately to the cash desks. The mountain station – which will be shaped halfway between an edelweiss and a wind rose – will be located on the ridge between the Pila and Cogne basins, and will host a panoramic restaurant overlooking the most spectacular peaks of the region: the Gran Paradiso, the Mont Blanc chain, the Rutor Glacier and the Grand Combin.

DeCarloGualla studio developed the valley and mountain station project with the awareness of having to deal with two very different landscape contexts. One of the main objectives is also to make the area increasingly competitive, both in summer and in winter, giving the possibility to diversify tourist activities, from skiing, to trekking, to relax and cycling.