The relationship with Sölden began when Production Designer Dennis Gassner was asked by Director Sam Mendes to find a hot and a cold location. “The Klinik was really the beginning of the adventure for me,’ Gassner explains. “We went to the Alps in Switzerland and Austria and Italy. Luckily, we found Sölden in Austria, and a restaurant, the ice Q, at the top of this ski lift, which became the foundation for what we needed.”

The ice Q structure had the perfect clean and clinical Alpine aesthetic for the Hoffler Klinik, and its position atop the 3,048-metre Gaislachkogl Mountain made it especially attractive. With key scenes set inside the Klinik, however, the filmmakers built the interior at Pinewood Studios in England, the traditional home of the James Bond films. Knowing Sam Mendes’ penchant for the symmetrical, both in set design and composition, Gassner tried mirroring the existing architecture to form a ‘butterfly’ shape. As the idea developed the new footprint was mirrored again to form a final design that was made up of four cantilevered wings radiating around a central courtyard. To balance the symmetry of the new building, a central concrete entrance tunnel was built, both on location in Austria and on the stage at Pinewood, allowing the actors to transition seamlessly between the exterior and interior sets. Once this location was established, the filmmakers required a further nine locations to complete the sequence, all of which were found in the area.

The building, projected by architect Johann Obermoser, enjoys the breathtaking mountain panorama thanks also to the large windows.

The majority of the installation is inside the mountain. Once complete, rock and ice were replaced around the edges and on top of the building completely encapsulating it within the mountaintop, leaving only the entrance, exit, two projected windows and the Plaza exposed, resulting in a low visual impact.