NEW Planet-Planai

While skiers and snowboarders have been enjoying the Planai slopes up to the mid station since 23rd October, workers have been extremely busy down in the valley. A new planet has been born: Planet Planai. Preparations for the Alpine Ski World Championships 2013 in Schladming are already underway. Overall, the Planai slopes have invested some €26 million in infrastructure improvements in order to host the biggest sporting event in Austria in the next few years. Planet Planai lies at the very heart of this, and was officially inaugurated on Friday, 26.11.2010.

Image text: From left: Architect Gernot Ritter, Planai Managing Director Ernst Trummer, Deputy Regional Governor Hermann Schützenhöfer, Regional Governor Franz Voves, Mayor Jürgen Winter

The new Planai cable car valley station building stands out as a result of its extraordinary architecture, which is based on a folded piece of paper and the 'one-stop shop' concept. Here, guests can obtain everything they need for their holiday. Organisational premises and a spectacular world championship studio with a huge glass facade have also been constructed for the major event.

‘It’s time to say goodbye’ – this is at least true for the ‘old’ Planai cable car valley station building, which was built in 1985 and was considered visionary at the time. Demolition work started on 11th April, and just 220 days later, Planet Planai is ready for occupation. This heralds the dawn of a new era of tourism architecture and service quality in the Alpine region. Both Regional Governor Franz Voves and Deputy Regional Governor Hermann Schützenhöfer attended the inauguration event on Friday evening in Schladming and praised the construction, the team’s dedication and the concept behind the design.

The building was designed by the Graz-based architects Hofrichter-Ritter, in close collaboration with the construction company and Planai-Hochwurzen-Bahnen and under consultation with the World Championship building committee and the country representatives, and is intended to symbolise modern Schladming. The entire building construction was also carried out to ensure complete accessibility for all generations.

It is especially good news that the majority of work was carried out by Austrian companies. (Over 80% of the contract volume was assigned to Styrian companies.)


Planet Planai heralds the dawn of a new era of tourism architecture.

The new Planet Planai valley station was built in a record time of 220 days.

Project Description.
An over-dimensional ‘loop’ (inspired by a folded piece of paper) envelopes the whole building, and is supported by 74 oblique columns. Each column has a load bearing capacity of 230 tonnes.
Within the ‘loop’ there are three interconnected building complexes. The southern wing (near the finishing slope) is home to the new Planai headquarters, accommodating all Planai-Bahnen business operations and subsidiaries (360 employees), whilst in the central area, office spaces are now available for significant partners (i.e. Wintersportverein Schladming, ÖSV, FIS). With a glass façade stretching some 1000 m2, the northern wing is reserved for guests.
The building also features exhaustive facilities for large sporting events. This includes a glass ‘World Cup studio’, the quality of which more than bears every comparison to international exemplars.

One-stop shop.
The ‘one-stop shop’ concept is also new. Guests will be offered EVERYTHING they expect from a holiday under one roof, thus making their break even more relaxing. ‘We want to offer guests the best product in the easiest possible way’, states Ernst Trummer, MD of Planai-Bahnen. The top-quality services range from hotel rooms, ski hire and ski tickets to rafting or hiking guides in summer, and even a sports shop with a ski depot. Even the guest bathrooms have been designed to reflect the highest standards.