Gems in the Alps in our new 'Scape cahier

Time to make holiday plans – that's allowed once in a while. And somehow, for me, that includes the Gotthard Pass in Switzerland, the gateway to sunny Italy. This time I am going by bike. It will be a slog, but I will also enjoy the fresh alpine meadows and whizzing down narrow gorges with waterfalls. With, of course, the hairpin bends of the Via Tremola as the big highlight.

Meanwhile, I look forward to two more gems in the Alps. They were selected by co-editor Daphne because they are so beautifully designed and so incredibly carefully executed. The first is not even that far from the Gotthard. It is towards Geneva, somewhere in the small town of Vercorin, in the mountains above the Rhone valley. A narrow street between the crooked farms, redesigned by En-Dehors to give pedestrians a bit more space of their own. But mostly it is a moving play of beautifully traced lines and surfaces of natural stone, cobbles and asphalt.

And once over the Alps, beyond Lugano, high in the mountains of Ticino lies the hamlet of Monte. Here, sudioser designed a similarly subtle pattern of water, materials and colours within the ubiquitous relief. Small gutters in the rough pavement direct the water, handrails adorned with copper ends guide the path from high to low and back again, past renewed small pools where you can briefly touch the water, to reach a cemetery via tightly cut steps – all the different types of stone fit into a small but impressive whole. It reads like homage to geology. And to craftsmanship – maybe you have to live in the mountains to be able to design and make things like this.

Another two month wait...

Harry Harsema
Co-editor in chief