The Mirror Houses are a pair of contemporary high class vacation holiday homes, set in the marvellous surroundings of the South Tyrolean Dolomites, amidst a beautiful scenery of apple trees, just outside the city of Bolzano. 
They were designed by architect Peter Pichler. The Mirror houses offer a unique chance to spend a beautiful vacation surrounded by contemporary architecture of the highest standards and the most astonishing Landscape and beauty nature has to offer.
The Architecture
PROJECT: Mirror Houses, Bolzano, Italy
ARCHITECT: Peter Pichler Architecture
STATUS: built
TYPE: residential units
CLIENT: Angela Sabine Staffler
PHOTOGRAPHY: Oskar Da Riz, Nicolò Degiorgis
The client, who lives in a restructured farmhouse of the 60s on the site, asked to design a structure for renting out as luxury holiday units.
Guests have their small autonomous apartment and can fully enjoy the experience of living in the middle of nature.
A maximum degree of privacy for both the client and the residing guest should be taken into consideration.
The new structure is oriented towards east with their private garden and an autonomous access and parking for the guests.
Each unit contains a kitchen / living room as well as a bath- and bedroom with big skylights that open to allow natural light and ventilation.
A small basement serves for temporary storage.
The projects initial volume is split into 2 units that are slightly shifted in height and length in order to loosen the entire structure and articulating each unit.
Both units are floating on a base above the ground evoking lightness besides offering better views from their cantilevering terraces to the impressive surrounding landscape.
The volume opens towards the east with a big glass facade that fades with curvilinear lines into the black aluminum shell.
The mirrored glass on the west facade borders the garden of the client with the units and catches the surrounding panorama while making the units almost invisible.
The mirrored glass is laminated with an UV coating preventing birds collision.
From certain views of the clients garden the old existing farmhouse is mirrored in the new contemporary architecture and is literally blending into it rather than competing against.
Peter Pichler Architecture
About
PPA is a north Italian based architecture and Design firm dedicated to developing an in- novative and contemporary approach towards architecture, urbanism, and design.
Their declared aim is to achieve the highest possible quality, excellent detailing and the creation of an integrated strategy involving the individual needs of the user, regardless of the budget.
In all projects an appropriate integration of the architecture into its surroundings is a priority, all project solutions are determined and informed through sustainability, value engineering, and rationalization.
From an early stage, projects are set up with the ambition to develop intelligent building solutions regarding room layout, structure, building process, and reduction of construction costs.
Services
Architecture | Landscaping | Project management | Masterplanning | Cost estimation | Analysis | Research | Strategy | Concept | Feasibility studies | Architectural design | Plan- ning applications | Building regulation applications | Detailed design | Site supervision | 3D modeling | Building surveys | sustainable design | Interior Design
Profile
Peter Pichler was born in Bolzano, Italy in 1982.
He was studying Architecture at the university of applied Arts Vienna and in the US at the university of California, returning back to Vienna where he graduated with distinction in the masterclass of Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher.
Already during his studies, Peter joined Zaha Hadid in London, where he worked on several competitions covering all scales and on the award winning Nordkettenbahn in Innsbruck.
He spent a while in Rotterdam working for Rem Koolhaas after turning back to Vienna and joining the team of Delugan Meissl, collaborating on an award winning concert hall in Amman, Jordan.
After finishing his diploma Peter went to Hamburg where he worked for Zaha Hadid as a project architect on the new library and learning center in Vienna and on a 150,000m2 mixed used development in Bratislava.
He then returned back to Italy and established Peter Pichler Architecture in Bolzano.
Peter Pichler is a registered Architect in Italy and member of the chamber of architects of the autonomous Province of Bolzano.