Building in the Mountains:
Architectural Photography at 3,000 m
28.11 – 12.12.2025
Photographs by
Oliver Jaist
Curated by
Emanuele Bressan, Nicolò Franchetto, Davide Mezzavilla
Orari
Friday 5:30pm–7:30pm
Lab27 is pleased to host the third edition of “Raccontare l’architettura”, promoted and curated by FAV Fondazione Architettura Treviso. This year again, three special events and an exhibition will explore the ongoing relationship between architecture and photography.
The series opens this Friday, 28 November at 5:30 p.m., with the first lecture, which also marks the opening of Oliver Jaist’s exhibition, “Building in the Mountains: Architectural Photography at 3,000 m”, curated by Emanuele Bressan.
The second event, on 5 December at 5:30 p.m., will focus on audiovisual language. The documentary “Point of Origin – Building a House in Austria” by director Frans Parthesius will be screened and discussed—an exploration of the creative and construction process behind the last house designed by renowned architect Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Curated by Davide Mezzavilla.
The series concludes on 12 December at 5:30 p.m. with a focus on architectural drawing, featuring Prof. Emanuele Garbin, lecturer at IUAV University of Venice. Drawing is an integral part of the design process: a language that, through lines, marks, and representations, translates ideas and concepts into forms that are understandable and shareable. Curated by Nicolò Franchetto.
The mountains, with their silent power and untamed materiality, have always been places of challenge and contemplation. Building at these altitudes means confronting extreme conditions: thin air, strong winds, sharp light, unstable ground, and isolation. Yet it is also an act of listening and respect—an exercise in balancing human needs with the grandeur of the landscape. This theme is particularly relevant today, made even more compelling by the upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, which prompt reflection on how building in the mountains entails the responsibility of inhabiting and transforming landscapes that are as fragile as they are essential.
Oliver Jaist’s photographs explore precisely this delicate and powerful dialogue between architecture and nature. His images do more than document buildings; they capture the profound relationship between constructed form and environment, between technical precision and aesthetic sensitivity. Each photograph conveys the tension between the accuracy of human work and the unpredictability of the natural context—between geometry and rock, light and silence.
The series presented in the exhibition depicts the construction process and completed work of architects Stifter+Bachmann: the Sasso Nero Mountain Hut, completed in 2018 at an altitude of 3,026 meters in Valle Aurina (South Tyrol), in the Zillertal Alps. Through Jaist’s lens, the construction site becomes a visual narrative: the sequence of images leads the viewer through the phases of building, from the transport of materials to the assembly of structures, culminating in the finished presence of the building in the landscape. It is a story that reveals how architecture can emerge from a direct encounter with the mountain’s material, climate, and constraints. "Building in the Mountains – Architectural Photography at 3,000 m" thus moves between documentation and poetic reflection, conveying not only the final form of the mountain hut but also the complexity of its creation—an example of contemporary architecture capable of respecting and interpreting the Alpine landscape.
Each photograph becomes a visual meditation on the relationship between technique and nature, between human scale and the scale of the landscape. Architecture appears as a temporary, fragile, yet necessary presence: a point of support in an infinite setting, a mark that dissolves into light and snow.
The exhibition invites visitors to view the mountains not as a backdrop but as a space for design—a place where building means dialoguing, adapting, and understanding. It encourages them to recognize, through the photographer’s gaze, the possibility of a new ethic of building—one shaped by attentiveness, lightness, and respect.
After gaining professional experience in renowned architecture and engineering studios, Oliver Jaist studied at the Hochschule München from 2009 to 2013. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Design/Photodesign with the thesis "Vallo alpino – linea non mi fido". Since 2012, he has worked as a freelance photographer. His practice focuses on architectural photography and documentation, along with a creative approach to the photographic medium in the context of social change. Alongside commissioned work, he pursues personal projects addressing critical issues in contemporary society.
Building in the Mountains:
Architectural Photography at 3,000 m
28.11 – 12.12.2025
Photographs by
Oliver Jaist
Curated by
Emanuele Bressan, Nicolò Franchetto, Davide Mezzavilla
Orari
Friday 5:30pm–7:30pm
Lab27 is pleased to host the third edition of “Raccontare l’architettura”, promoted and curated by FAV Fondazione Architettura Treviso. This year again, three special events and an exhibition will explore the ongoing relationship between architecture and photography.
The series opens this Friday, 28 November at 5:30 p.m., with the first lecture, which also marks the opening of Oliver Jaist’s exhibition, “Building in the Mountains: Architectural Photography at 3,000 m”, curated by Emanuele Bressan.
The second event, on 5 December at 5:30 p.m., will focus on audiovisual language. The documentary “Point of Origin – Building a House in Austria” by director Frans Parthesius will be screened and discussed—an exploration of the creative and construction process behind the last house designed by renowned architect Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Curated by Davide Mezzavilla.
The series concludes on 12 December at 5:30 p.m. with a focus on architectural drawing, featuring Prof. Emanuele Garbin, lecturer at IUAV University of Venice. Drawing is an integral part of the design process: a language that, through lines, marks, and representations, translates ideas and concepts into forms that are understandable and shareable. Curated by Nicolò Franchetto.
The mountains, with their silent power and untamed materiality, have always been places of challenge and contemplation. Building at these altitudes means confronting extreme conditions: thin air, strong winds, sharp light, unstable ground, and isolation. Yet it is also an act of listening and respect—an exercise in balancing human needs with the grandeur of the landscape. This theme is particularly relevant today, made even more compelling by the upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, which prompt reflection on how building in the mountains entails the responsibility of inhabiting and transforming landscapes that are as fragile as they are essential.
Oliver Jaist’s photographs explore precisely this delicate and powerful dialogue between architecture and nature. His images do more than document buildings; they capture the profound relationship between constructed form and environment, between technical precision and aesthetic sensitivity. Each photograph conveys the tension between the accuracy of human work and the unpredictability of the natural context—between geometry and rock, light and silence.
The series presented in the exhibition depicts the construction process and completed work of architects Stifter+Bachmann: the Sasso Nero Mountain Hut, completed in 2018 at an altitude of 3,026 meters in Valle Aurina (South Tyrol), in the Zillertal Alps. Through Jaist’s lens, the construction site becomes a visual narrative: the sequence of images leads the viewer through the phases of building, from the transport of materials to the assembly of structures, culminating in the finished presence of the building in the landscape. It is a story that reveals how architecture can emerge from a direct encounter with the mountain’s material, climate, and constraints. "Building in the Mountains – Architectural Photography at 3,000 m" thus moves between documentation and poetic reflection, conveying not only the final form of the mountain hut but also the complexity of its creation—an example of contemporary architecture capable of respecting and interpreting the Alpine landscape.
Each photograph becomes a visual meditation on the relationship between technique and nature, between human scale and the scale of the landscape. Architecture appears as a temporary, fragile, yet necessary presence: a point of support in an infinite setting, a mark that dissolves into light and snow.
The exhibition invites visitors to view the mountains not as a backdrop but as a space for design—a place where building means dialoguing, adapting, and understanding. It encourages them to recognize, through the photographer’s gaze, the possibility of a new ethic of building—one shaped by attentiveness, lightness, and respect.
After gaining professional experience in renowned architecture and engineering studios, Oliver Jaist studied at the Hochschule München from 2009 to 2013. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Design/Photodesign with the thesis "Vallo alpino – linea non mi fido". Since 2012, he has worked as a freelance photographer. His practice focuses on architectural photography and documentation, along with a creative approach to the photographic medium in the context of social change. Alongside commissioned work, he pursues personal projects addressing critical issues in contemporary society.
