Glamping Tower Project Wins Glamping Cabins Architecture Competition

The award ceremony for the "Glamping Cabins" architectural competition took place on Tuesday 16 May 2023, with an interdisciplinary jury declaring the “Glamping Tuurm/Tiermchen” by Sahararchitects the winner among the 26 projects submitted.

Organised by Luxembourg's General Directorate for Tourism and the Order of Architects and Consulting Engineers (Ordre des architectes et ingénieurs-conseils - OAI), this competition aims to inspire the creation of new types of tourist accommodation in rural areas.

 The "Glamping Cabins" represent a type of unusual high-quality accommodation intended to be set up in existing tourist areas, thus aiming to support tourism players in their projects to develop the accommodation offer.

The winning project is inspired by medieval architecture and is a nod to the castles from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The project’s other material choices – wooden structure and steel feet – are meant to reference Luxembourg’s rich forest environment and its southern-based steelmaking past.

The project is made up of divisible, stackable modules to facilitate transport and installation, with the added benefit of limiting the impact on the ground.

The General Directorate for Tourism will have the detailed construction plans of the “Glamping Tuurm/Tiermchen” project drawn up. In line with the “Tourism for All” concept, these construction plans will also provide an accessible version of the cabin, to accommodate people in wheelchairs.

According to the General Directorate for Tourism, any interested investor, natural person or legal entity under private or public law, can contact them in order to obtain these detailed construction plans.

The second and third prizes in the “Glamping Cabins” architectural competition were respectively awarded to the “Yook” project by the Sideshore Architecture + Urbanism office and “Schauteng” by the Paul Mathey Architecture & Design office.

Luxembourg’s Minister for Tourism, Lex Delles, stressed during his speech that “highlighting the tourist assets of rural areas and developing tourist accommodation in these regions is part of our political priorities. I am therefore particularly delighted that the winners of the 'Glamping Cabins' architectural competition have succeeded in developing projects that have the potential to contribute to the revitalisation of the tourist offer in rural areas. This is particularly true for the 'Glamping Tuurm/Tiermchen' project, which stands out for its innovative character and its sustainable approach.”

Pierre Hurt, Director of the OAI, underlined that “this initiative is part of the OAI's objective to boost the culture of competitions in Luxembourg. To this end, the OAI has set up a new website www.ConcoursOAI.lu, which has allowed applications to be put back online. This type of competition meets a real need, as evidenced by the impressive success with the submission of 26 projects.”

Michelle Friederici, President of the OAI and president of the jury, presented the results of the constructive work of the jury during its meeting on 6 March 2023. In addition to the three prizes, the "Assemblage” from Etudes F and “ready MADE” from YO Studio were each awarded a special prize. In addition, the projects "Le shed" by Aeco Atelier d'Architecture, "Den Polyreflekt" by Joni Da Cruz, "3^Eck" by Medinger Architecture, "Den Buergi" by Niche(s) Atelier d'Architecture and Alban Wagener's "De Minett" each received a mention.

The exhibition of the 26 panels (2x1 m) will take place until 30 June 2023, from Monday to Friday, from 08:30 to 17:30 at the OAI headquarters (6 Boulevard Grande-Duchesse Charlotte in Luxembourg-Belair) and on the website www.ConcoursOAI.lu, including all 26 proposed projects.