Set on a mountain summit more than 3,000 metres above sea level, Herzog & de Meuron's Titilis 3020 station and restaurants will cantilever out over the Swiss Alps.
Two steel volumes will be inserted crosswise into an existing antenna tower to create a bar and restaurant with panoramic views, while a new station will be built around the existing cable car system.
"Our project on the Titlis belongs to a new generation of alpine architecture that aims to do justice to the breathtaking landscape by ensuring a corresponding architectural experience of the kind now familiar to us in our cities," said Herzog & de Meuron.
"The Titlis project articulates an unstoppable process that is transforming Switzerland."
The Basel-based firm was commissioned to renovate the buildings on top of Klein Titlis, a mountain in the Engelberg skiing region. Over one million visitors come up the mountain each year, with up to 2,000 a day at peak times.
Herzog & de Meuron surveyed the existing gondala summit station, which was built in 1967 and has undergone several refurbishments. The architects discovered the current building's load-bearing structure wouldn't accommodate the changes needed to fix overcrowding issues in the station.
The existing gondala will be encased in the new steel and glass crystalline horizontal building. It's low-lying form will make it appear as though it is pushing out of the Titlis glacier like a "flat crystal growing out of the mountain...