TRILOBIT

The Trilobite Wellness Resort: A Living Fossil in the Austrian Alps

We developed a new concept for an outstanding wellness resort: Perched in the verdant hills of the Austrian Alps, a remarkable architectural landmark is redefining the relationship between nature, art, and technology: the Trilobite Wellness Resort. With its undulating, terraced façade and finely etched contours, the building appears as if it has risen organically from the surrounding landscape - a futuristic fossil that pays homage to the prehistoric trilobite and the rhythmic visual energy of Victor Vasarely’s Op-Art.

A Fossil Reimagined as Architecture

The building captures the structure from its monumental front elevation, revealing a powerful biomorphic silhouette. The stepped, ribbed layers echo the exoskeleton of a trilobite, an ancient marine arthropod whose evolutionary design has been fossilized for over 500 million years. This reference is not merely symbolic - the architecture draws on deep-time narratives, using the language of geology and paleontology to reconnect humans with Earth’s ancient rhythms. The symmetry and repetition found in trilobite anatomy find a visual echo in the building’s form, which radiates a sense of primordial order and fluid movement.

The Influence of Vasarely: Op Art Meets Organic Form

Simultaneously, the horizontal banding and sinuous surface articulation nod to Victor Vasarely’s fine-line optical illusions. These lines manipulate light and perspective as one moves around the structure, creating a kinetic visual experience. In blending this abstract visual strategy with the trilobite form, the building becomes an immersive artwork - one that shifts, pulses, and breathes in rhythm with its alpine environment.

A Technological Living Shell

But the innovation does not stop at aesthetics. The façade is made of robotically printed, parametric concrete - a precision-built surface developed using algorithmic design tools. The concrete contains embedded moss spores, which gradually bloom across the façade depending on sun exposure, humidity, and seasonal changes. The result is a living building skin that blurs the boundary between architecture and ecology, technology and biology.

Complementing this futuristic material is the use of local white marble, grounding the structure in regional heritage and providing a luminous, luxurious contrast to the textured concrete shell. Together, these materials enable the building to function both as a sustainable structure and a sensory sanctuary.

A Resort of Reconnection

Inside, the Trilobit Wellness Resort offers a holistic escape. Guests move through terraced spa areas carved into the mountain-like labyrinthine fossil bed. Water features echo glacial melts; treatment rooms are sculpted with ambient light and soundscapes mimicking tectonic murmurs. The architecture guides the body and mind into deep states of rest, reminding visitors of their place in the grand geological arc of time.

Beyond indulgence, the resort is a pilot project in sustainable alpine tourism. Solar panels are seamlessly integrated into the building’s upper “shell,” and geothermal energy systems run beneath the facility, minimizing its ecological footprint while maximizing comfort.

A Symbol of the Future Past

The Trilobit Wellness Resort is more than an architectural marvel; it is a symbol of regenerative design - one that honors the distant past while offering a vision for a balanced tomorrow. Its interdisciplinary approach blends biomimicry, computational design, ecological integration and fine art into a cohesive whole.

This is architecture as living memory, a poetic fossil formed not in stone but in code, concrete, moss, and light. It marks a turning point in how we build, how we heal, and how we remember the Earth we inhabit.