Bregenzerwald
THE FUTURE IS NOW, AS KENDALL HILL DISCOVERS IN A UTOPIAN REGION HIDDEN AMONG THE ALPS IN WESTERN AUSTRIA.
Visit a place of the future – it’s not what you think
The ciTy of the future is not what you might think. It’s not a skyscraper metropolis in which humans live high-rise, hermetic lives surrounded by robot cars and flying taxis. In fact, it’s not a city at all but a cluster of villages – in this case nestled in the forests of western Austria. And it’s the closest I've come to finding utopia.
This is a place where the old and the new – tradition and opportunity – are valued equally; where living well and meaningfully is much more important than material wealth. In short, it’s a place whose people seem to have got the balance about right for a sustainable future.
The region is called Bregenzerwald, a land of extraordinary beauty where the natural attributes – mountains and valleys, emerald hills and meadows – are rendered even more lovely by the simple lines of its timber houses, handmade by each generation and weathered to a silvery patina by the seasons. Its inhabitants, the Wälder, live in harmony with the environment rather than trying to change or conquer it. A rare state of affairs that sounds – and often looks – almost too good to be true.
On my first visit three years ago, I hiked through forests and emerged at a hamlet called Ratzen where I marvelled at how every garden, every window box and every woodpile was immaculate. I spotted a young girl sitting on a bench in a picture-book backyard, petting a white rabbit on her lap while a goat stood sentry on a nearby rock. A chestnut pony munched the lush lawn beside them, its flaxen mane and tail ruffling in the breeze. And I thought to myself, “Is this The Truman Show, Austria style?” How can life look so perfect?
At first blush it would be easy to mistake this society as some Luddite-like cult with a mild obsession for carpentry and dairy farming. It’s true that the people here have a special affinity for the land they’ve nurtured over generations but living in the centre of Europe (bordered by Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, with Italy just down the road) means that they are also outward-looking and engaged. Wälders might be handy with a hayfork but they are also global entrepreneurs, renowned architects and artisans. Among their ranks is Susanne Kaufmann, who has created an international spa empire based on the botanicals of the unique Bregenz Forest, as well as Bernardo Bader, winner of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and star proponent of Bregenzerwald’s beautiful, minimalist aesthetic.
Guide and local identity Helga Rädler tries to explain the Wälder mindset to me. “We don’t have quantity so we have to do quality,” she says of her valley, which is home to only 30,000 people and as many cows.
The surest way to experience a taste of the Wälder way of life is to sit at their table and eat. It’s impossible to do it badly; dining is regarded as a social art and even village inns tend to be temples to gastronomy.
Hittisau’s Hotel Gasthof Krone (hotel. qantas.com.au/hotelgasthofkrone) is a fine example. Built in 1837, the hotel sources most of its produce within a radius of about 15 kilometres. The fads of 21st-century dining – foraging and sustainability, as well as ethical and organic farming – have been standard practice in Bregenzerwald for centuries. Whether it’s pike-perch from Lake Constance or lamb raised by the Mennel family in Krumbach, the focus at Hotel Gasthof Krone is always on natural flavours.
To appreciate the Wälder eye for design, take a walk in one of the villages, armed with a tourist-office map that marks the notable buildings. They might be anything from a Baroque rectory to a strikingly Modernist police station or kindergarten; great design is democratic here. Or catch the yellow Landbus through Krumbach to visit the seven whimsical bus stops along its route, each one conceived by an invited international architect. My favourite is the two-storey shingled affair that has shelter below and a spectator box above to catch the action at the tennis court next door.
Fall under the countryside’s spell (like I did in Ratzen) with a hike in the hills or take a chairlift ride to the top of Vordere Niedere mountain and walk to the tiny Theodul Chapel, an architectural showpiece set on a ridge facing the Swiss Alps.
Afterwards, join Andelsbuch residents for a schnapps at Jöslar (joeslar.at), a farmer’s inn that has been reborn as a Mid-Centurystyled bar of blond timber and brown-tiled kachelofen heater. On weekends, it hosts “social breakfasts”, a relatively new concept here, known to most of us as “brunch”, a good instance of how the Wälder adopt the best of the past and present. “We honour the old, welcome the new and stay true to ourselves and our native land,” as local poet Gebhard Wölfle wrote.
Call me romantic but that’s the kind of future I’d like to live in.