Lodge Park Hotel

The proposal is based on a clear operation: to remove vehicles from the foreground and recover this space as a habitable area. Vehicular access is maintained in a functional way, but it is no longer the protagonist. In its place, outdoor lounges, waiting areas and paths surrounded by vegetation turn arrival into a slower experience, more closely connected to the site. This transformation makes it possible to naturalise an urban mountain space and revalue it through comfort, biodiversity and its relationship with the landscape.

An arrival built with locals materials

The pergola organises the entrance and gives identity to the ensemble. Its timber and metal structure acts as a threshold between the vehicular arrival, the seating areas and the garden. The piece introduces a more human scale in front of the building and becomes a recognisable element, capable of welcoming without imposing itself on the surrounding landscape.
The materials reinforce this desire to be rooted in the place. The basalt walls and pavements connect with the mineral character of Andorra and provide a sober, resistant and durable base. Timber, present in benches, platforms and pergolas, introduces warmth and balances the hardness of the stone. This combination creates an atmosphere characteristic of the mountains, contemporary yet coherent with the site’s existing conditions.

The project resolves the hotel’s functional needs —access, circulation, waiting and gathering— without renouncing the quality of the outdoor space. Former residual areas become useful and comfortable spaces, designed to be experienced throughout the year.

A birch forest and seasonal colour

The garden is structured around a small birch forest (Betula pendula) that filters the relationship between the hotel, the road and the valley beyond. The white trunks create a light, vertical presence, especially intense in winter, when the snow accentuates the contrast with the dark stone, timber and metal structure.
Accompanying the birches, the planting combines shrubs, evergreen species and perennials adapted to the mountain climate. Different species and varieties of dogwood (Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’, C. a. ‘Elegantissima’ and C. a. ‘Kesselringii’, Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’ and C. s. ‘Kelseyi’, Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’) provide one of the most expressive moments of the project during the colder months: their red, orange and yellow stems emerge above the snow and keep the garden alive when the deciduous vegetation has lost its leaves.
The planting is designed to evolve with the seasons. In spring and summer, the foliage provides shade, freshness and a lusher atmosphere; in autumn, the changes in colour, with the yellows of the birches and the oranges and reds of the dogwoods, reinforce the connection with the natural cycle of the Pyrenees; in winter, the trunks, stems and plant textures maintain the structure of the ensemble. This seasonal variation turns the garden into a living system, capable of offering interest and environmental quality throughout the year.

The result is an urban redevelopment that transforms the entrance to Lodge Park Hotel into a more welcoming, efficient space connected to the territory. Vegetation ceases to be an ornamental element and becomes the main tool for transformation: it filters, accompanies, provides comfort and introduces biodiversity into an area previously dominated by vehicles. Architecture, materials and garden work together to create a new arrival experience within the Pyrenean landscape.