feld72 Drapes a Merano Spa Hotel in an Aluminum Veil and Lifts a Faceted Mansard Over Its Historic Roofline

Merano grew up as a spa town, and its nineteenth-century identity still runs along the Passer River in a chain of hotels, villas and promenades. Hotel Aurora sits right at the hinge between that river landscape and the denser fabric around Piazza Teatro, beside the protected Teatro Puccini and facing the thermal baths. The Aukenthaler family has run the hotel for roughly sixty years. With feld72, they have now completed the first phase of a long-running transformation that began with a competition in 2017. The scheme adds two rooftop floors with 18 guestrooms and rebuilds the entrance, reception, bar, restaurant and lobby across 2,370 m².

The interesting part is not the added room count. It is the way feld72 treats a heritage-sensitive rooftop as an act of urban repair. Instead of hiding the extension, the architects wrapped the retained nineteenth-century building and its new upper volume in a single shell of anodized aluminum fins, then shaped the top into an oversized, faceted mansard. The design began from the image of a garment lifted by the wind. That sounds whimsical, but the result is disciplined. The heritage authorities supported the rooftop addition because it closes a gap in the promenade frontage, and we think that argument holds up when you stand on the riverbank.

Completing the Passer Promenade

From across the water, the new volume does what Merano's grand hotels always did: it finishes the riverside wall. Its height and pale tone sit comfortably with the embankment trees, the café umbrellas and the mountains behind. The pleated crown keeps it from reading as a blunt modern box, and that matters on a promenade where the skyline is mostly hipped roofs, terracotta tiles and a slate spire.

At dusk the glazing behind the fins glows softly through the screen. The building becomes a lantern on the riverbank rather than a sheet of hotel windows. For a spa town that has always sold itself on evening walks along the water, this is a smart piece of civic manners.

Seen From the Bridge and the Square

The fins make the façade change with your position. Seen at an angle from the promenade, they overlap into an almost solid surface. Seen straight on from Piazza Teatro, they open up and let the glazing show through. One material produces two characters, and each suits its urban side: a calm, continuous edge along the river and a more porous face toward the square.

From the cast-iron bridge, and from further out where the mountain haze takes over, the ribbed roof reads as a roofscape element rather than as an addition. That is the real test for any extension in a historic center, and feld72 passes it without resorting to pastiche.

A Mansard Rebuilt in Aluminum

At street level the old building stays in charge. The plastered walls, arched shopfronts and shuttered windows remain, and the new volume cantilevers above the retained façade. The faceted mansard reinterprets the pitched roofs of the surrounding streets at a larger scale, so the addition carries a familiar silhouette even though its material is entirely contemporary.

The close-up shows where the garment idea pays off. The fins vary in depth and width, some are doubled at different heights, and the lower third of each one bends slightly outward. Where they meet the old cornice, the result looks like fabric gathering at a hem. It is a detail you only notice from the pavement, and it gives the abrupt meeting of two centuries a softer edge.

Fins as Screen, Shade and Privacy

On the upper floors the fins stand in front of balconies and loggias, filtering views in both directions. Guests get privacy from the square, and the town gets a unified surface instead of a row of balcony railings and furniture. Against tiled rooftops and the wooded hillside, the white aluminum reads as a single deliberate gesture.

From inside, the slanted fins cut sunlight into bands across the floor and furniture. We have no published data on the façade's environmental performance, so we will not claim it is a solar strategy. Still, the experience of the loggia makes a strong case that the screen is about more than looks.

Rooms Behind the Veil

The new guestrooms are compact, with the published plan showing a 25 m² unit, and they lean on what the site offers: vineyards on the slopes, pitched roofs along the street and, in one room, a bronze centaur on a neighboring rooftop. Floor-to-ceiling glazing and timber ceilings keep the rooms warm, while the fins outside keep the views from feeling exposed.

Interiors throughout are by Hannes Peer Architecture, working with brass, travertine, wood flooring and Laas white marble from South Tyrol. The rooms avoid generic boutique-hotel styling. Ochre upholstery and tan leather nod to the 1970s palette that defines the restored ground floor.

A Lobby That Takes the 1970s Seriously

The entrance announces itself with a ceramic wall of more than 2,000 handmade tiles in over 30 tonalities, produced with Officine Saffi, under a curved metal canopy. Inside, the bespoke terrazzo made from local stone continues the promenade surface into the reception, so the lobby feels like part of the street. A Murano glass chandelier and pillowy ceiling pods hang over a curved brass-topped desk.

The more important decision is what the team kept. The 1970s ground-floor interiors by carpenter Herbert Kinkelin, including the Artè space, brass dividers, planters and high-relief plaster, have been restored rather than removed. Too many hotel renovations wipe out their most characterful decade. This one treats it as heritage, which fits a project that started from the premise of transforming existing buildings, not replacing them.

Stairs Cut From Shadow

The circulation core takes a different tone from the bright rooms. Angled dark walls, carpeted treads and slim vertical balustrades form a quieter, almost cave-like passage, with a thin slice of daylight falling from above. The faceted geometry of the mansard seems to fold inward here, and climbing the stair becomes a short sequence of compression before the light of the upper floors.

Plans and Drawings

The site and roof plans make the urban argument clear: the footprint sits on the river edge next to the theatre and neighboring blocks, and the circulation diagram shows a public route cutting through from the street toward the rear. The ground floor mixes commercial spaces, lobby and restaurant, which supports the brief's idea of the hotel as an interface between guests, the family and the town.

The upper plans repeat nine rooms with loggias per floor along a corridor joined to the existing building. The fourth-floor roof terrace with its square pool belongs to the second phase, due in 2028, which will also add 41 more rooms. The sections and exploded axonometric are the most telling drawings: they separate veil, extension and historic building into three distinct layers, which is exactly how the project should be understood.

Why This Project Matters

Rooftop extensions in historic European centers usually go one of two ways: timid imitation or defiant contrast. Hotel Aurora offers a third option. It borrows the mansard's silhouette, rebuilds it in an unmistakably contemporary material, and uses a responsive screen to adapt to each street condition it faces. The years of negotiation with heritage authorities, the design advisory board, the city and the client are evident in the result. It has the confidence of a building that was argued for, not slipped through.

The project also widens what preservation can include. feld72 kept the nineteenth-century façade, and the team kept the 1970s Kinkelin interiors with equal care, treating several eras of a family hotel as material worth carrying forward. For architects working on hospitality in historic towns, the lesson is practical: repair the city's edge first, and let the building's own history set the tone for the rooms.

Hotel Aurora by feld72, Merano, Italy. Area: 2,370 m². Year: 2026. Photography by tschinkersten fotografie.

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