The story of Avoriaz 1800 starts in the 1960s.
Downhill skier Jean Vuarnet, whose name is today found on cool sunglasses, had just become an Olympic Champion at Squaw Valley in California. He returned to his home in Morzine, France (located in Haute-Savoie) and was asked to help build a new resort on the empty plateau above the town.
So he, and whoever else, raised some money, got the necessary approvals, and managed to successfully get the first lifts operational. But the resort quickly ran into financial difficulties and, apparently, bankruptcy became a possibility.
The turning point came when he met Paris-based developer Robert Brémond. He had the capital and the experience, and so Vuarnet eventually ceded the project to him in 1962. In 1964, Robert then asked his son, Gérard, who was only 27 at the time, to lead the project. Supposedly he said to him, "the mountains are for the younger generation."
Gérard then went out and hired a young architect named Jacques Labro. He was also in his 20s at the time; 26 to be exact. The mandate he gave Labro was clear: design the ideal recreational resort. At the same time, he was asked to build upon Vuarnet's original vision for Avoriaz. The result was an audacious masterplan designed around three guiding principles.
First, it was to be a completely car-free resort, which was/is a big deal and an accomplishment that remains true today. To access Avoriaz by car you either need to park below in Morzine and take a gondola up, or park at the entrance to the resort.
Two, it was to be an ideal place for skiing (snowboarding didn't exist just yet). This meant that the entire resort had to be sloped correctly so that everything would be ski in and ski out.
Finally, it was to have decidedly modern architecture that fit sensitively within the landscape. They didn't want it to look like some ideal Swiss mountain village. What they wanted was bold, different, and highly sustainable. The result is some of the most unique mountain architecture to be found anywhere.
For a preview of the village's architecture, check out these photos by Alastair Philip Wiper. They were part of an exhibition called "Avoriaz: The Enchanting Village." Along with this story, they will probably make you want to visit the place. That's certainly the case for me.
Photo by Rémi Bertogliati on Unsplash
Sometime before the Paris 2024 Olympics this summer, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is expected to announce who will host the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games. Right now, the two frontrunners are thought to be the French Alps and Salt Lake City/Park City -- I think respectively.
Obviously these are two fantastic winter locations. But one of the things that the local committees need to do before they can secure the games is show the IOC that they have enough hotel rooms on hand. More specifically, they need 24,000 rooms reserved for 33 nights. This covers 17 nights during the games, 14 nights before, and 2 nights after.
Most of these rooms, about 10,000 or so, will go to journalists.
I didn't fully appreciate -- or I just didn't think about it -- that this was something that needed to be done 6-10 years out. Because right now there is a human running around try to lock up these rooms in advance of the decision this summer.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, they're already at 85% of the requisite 24,000 rooms. Though some of these rooms have yet to be built and some of them reach into neighboring Wyoming, which apparently isn't an atypical distance when it comes to meeting this accommodation requirement.
For obvious reasons, I'm rooting for Utah here. I really want them to get the Winter Games.
The story of Avoriaz 1800 starts in the 1960s.
Downhill skier Jean Vuarnet, whose name is today found on cool sunglasses, had just become an Olympic Champion at Squaw Valley in California. He returned to his home in Morzine, France (located in Haute-Savoie) and was asked to help build a new resort on the empty plateau above the town.
So he, and whoever else, raised some money, got the necessary approvals, and managed to successfully get the first lifts operational. But the resort quickly ran into financial difficulties and, apparently, bankruptcy became a possibility.
The turning point came when he met Paris-based developer Robert Brémond. He had the capital and the experience, and so Vuarnet eventually ceded the project to him in 1962. In 1964, Robert then asked his son, Gérard, who was only 27 at the time, to lead the project. Supposedly he said to him, "the mountains are for the younger generation."
Gérard then went out and hired a young architect named Jacques Labro. He was also in his 20s at the time; 26 to be exact. The mandate he gave Labro was clear: design the ideal recreational resort. At the same time, he was asked to build upon Vuarnet's original vision for Avoriaz. The result was an audacious masterplan designed around three guiding principles.
First, it was to be a completely car-free resort, which was/is a big deal and an accomplishment that remains true today. To access Avoriaz by car you either need to park below in Morzine and take a gondola up, or park at the entrance to the resort.
Two, it was to be an ideal place for skiing (snowboarding didn't exist just yet). This meant that the entire resort had to be sloped correctly so that everything would be ski in and ski out.
Finally, it was to have decidedly modern architecture that fit sensitively within the landscape. They didn't want it to look like some ideal Swiss mountain village. What they wanted was bold, different, and highly sustainable. The result is some of the most unique mountain architecture to be found anywhere.
For a preview of the village's architecture, check out these photos by Alastair Philip Wiper. They were part of an exhibition called "Avoriaz: The Enchanting Village." Along with this story, they will probably make you want to visit the place. That's certainly the case for me.
Photo by Rémi Bertogliati on Unsplash
Sometime before the Paris 2024 Olympics this summer, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is expected to announce who will host the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games. Right now, the two frontrunners are thought to be the French Alps and Salt Lake City/Park City -- I think respectively.
Obviously these are two fantastic winter locations. But one of the things that the local committees need to do before they can secure the games is show the IOC that they have enough hotel rooms on hand. More specifically, they need 24,000 rooms reserved for 33 nights. This covers 17 nights during the games, 14 nights before, and 2 nights after.
Most of these rooms, about 10,000 or so, will go to journalists.
I didn't fully appreciate -- or I just didn't think about it -- that this was something that needed to be done 6-10 years out. Because right now there is a human running around try to lock up these rooms in advance of the decision this summer.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, they're already at 85% of the requisite 24,000 rooms. Though some of these rooms have yet to be built and some of them reach into neighboring Wyoming, which apparently isn't an atypical distance when it comes to meeting this accommodation requirement.
For obvious reasons, I'm rooting for Utah here. I really want them to get the Winter Games.
And even though I've been mostly disconnected, it has been hard not to miss the hype around the new Apple Vision Pro, which was released into the wild this week. I haven't tried one yet, but every review that I have read or watched seems to come to the same general conclusion: "Wow, this thing is incredible. It feels like a glimpse into the future of computing."
If you're looking for a comprehensive technical overview of the device, you should check out Marques Brownlee's video, here. But if you're just looking to get a sense of what it might be like to, you know, wander around New York City wearing one, you should definitely check out Casey Neistat's video, here.
Now I think there's no question that there's a dystopian element to all of this. When Casey is standing around and watching a butterfly eat his donut, he looks pretty strange from the outside. Only he is seeing the butterfly. But then again, we all look pretty weird standing around staring down at our phones all the time. Maybe this will help us become less disconnected. I don't know.
Either way, it's hard not to imagine this changing -- a lot. I mean, here's just one small example. Already Zillow has an app for Vision Pro that allows you to tour homes for sale. Assuming it's as good as everyone says it is, I can't imagine anyone going to physically tour a home ever again, unless they're really serious and/or ready to put in an offer.
Of course, there's also no shortage of people saying that this device is simply too expensive. But I think that misses the point. This is version one. At this point, Apple just needs to be directionally right about what they are calling "spatial computing." (They don't want you to call it VR.) Because if they are right, the price will come down and then we'll all be watching old Bond movies on these devices.
And even though I've been mostly disconnected, it has been hard not to miss the hype around the new Apple Vision Pro, which was released into the wild this week. I haven't tried one yet, but every review that I have read or watched seems to come to the same general conclusion: "Wow, this thing is incredible. It feels like a glimpse into the future of computing."
If you're looking for a comprehensive technical overview of the device, you should check out Marques Brownlee's video, here. But if you're just looking to get a sense of what it might be like to, you know, wander around New York City wearing one, you should definitely check out Casey Neistat's video, here.
Now I think there's no question that there's a dystopian element to all of this. When Casey is standing around and watching a butterfly eat his donut, he looks pretty strange from the outside. Only he is seeing the butterfly. But then again, we all look pretty weird standing around staring down at our phones all the time. Maybe this will help us become less disconnected. I don't know.
Either way, it's hard not to imagine this changing -- a lot. I mean, here's just one small example. Already Zillow has an app for Vision Pro that allows you to tour homes for sale. Assuming it's as good as everyone says it is, I can't imagine anyone going to physically tour a home ever again, unless they're really serious and/or ready to put in an offer.
Of course, there's also no shortage of people saying that this device is simply too expensive. But I think that misses the point. This is version one. At this point, Apple just needs to be directionally right about what they are calling "spatial computing." (They don't want you to call it VR.) Because if they are right, the price will come down and then we'll all be watching old Bond movies on these devices.
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