Hailed as France’s most iconic avant-garde ski resort when it opened, Flaine is a corner of the world unlike any other. Designated a “20th-Century Heritage Site” in 2003, it was designed by Marcel Breuer, master of the Bauhaus. Unexpected, radical, and austere, Flaine continues to challenge conventional ideas of what a ski resort can be.

The massive influx of holidaymakers in the 1930s –drawn by the promise of fresh air and skiing on pristine slopes– led to the creation of ski resorts in untouched landscapes, true towns in the mountains. The Alps soon became a laboratory for urban and architectural experimentation, where innovative projects demanding bold solutions were set within these exceptional environments.

Behind these constructions lie the human stories that inspired architects to surpass themselves; the mountains invite us to leave banality and conformity down in the valleys. Though this human, architectural, and technical saga has come to an end, the resorts continue to evolve, transform, and adapt to new expectations.

With its rows of prefabricated concrete buildings set on foundations of local Sixt stone, diamond-shaped facades that catch and scatter the sunlight, and monumental works by some of the 20th century’s greatest artists –Picasso, Dubuffet, Vasarely– Flaine has endured. It continues to speak to contemporary concerns, for nowhere else is the relationship between landscape and humanity’s bond with nature explored in such a singular way.

Authors
Myr Muratet, photographer
Bénédicte Chaljub, architectural historian
Carine Bel, journalist

Scientific Direction
Dany Cartron
Stéphan Dégeorges
CAUE de Haute-Savoie

Co-publishing
Éditions 205
CAUE de Haute-Savoie

Format: 15.5 × 24 cm
Pages: 112
ISBN: 978-2-919380-04-9
Release: 2022
Languages: English, French
Domain: Architectur, Urbanism, Landscape
Price: €20

Graphic design: Éditions deux-cent-cinq
Typefaces: Muoto, Matthieu Cortat and Augure, Simon Renaud; 205TF 
Printing: Imprimerie Ott, Wasselonne (67), France