Mountaintop James Bond museum is licensed to chill

Reachable only by cable car and situated at 3,040 m (9,973 ft) on the summit of Gaislachkogl Mountain in Austria, the new James Bond-themed 007 Elements museum must be among the highest museums in the world. It has a striking concrete design and, interestingly, doesn't feature any heating at all, despite the extreme environment.

007 Elements sports a simple material palette of concrete, steel, and glass, which was chosen to reflect the modern James Bond aesthetic and brings to mind Zaha Hadid's Austrian mountain museum. It certainly looks the part, and it's not too big a stretch to picture Daniel Craig sipping a vodka martini somewhere in the premises.

We asked the firm behind 007 Elements, Obermoser Arch-Omo, about its curious decision to not use any heating or cooling and were told that it was decided to go this route early in the design process, to make guests experience the installation as an extension of the extreme environment. The firm also told us that the lack of heating ensures that no heat was transferred to the surrounding permafrost.

Visitors enter the museum through a tunnel named "the Barrel of the Gun," before descending into multiple exhibition spaces that were curated with input from Neal Callow, Creative and Art Director on the last four Bond films, and Optimist's Tino Schaedler. They have novel names like the "Lair" and "Briefing Room," and include sculptures, viewings of previous Bond movie action sequences, and the like. The final area leads outdoors to an open-air platform with panoramic views over the spectacular landscape.

Obermoser Arch-Omo has plenty of experience with alpine projects and also designed a nearby restaurant called ice-Q, which featured in the 2015 James Bond movie Spectre as the "Hoffler Klinik." That said, the 007 project posed a significant challenge to complete.

"Geological fault lines, the exposed location on the peak and the extremely short building span created huge challenges," explains Obermoser Arch-Omo. "The crew could not work for more than a few weeks at a time, therefore the people and crew on site had to work on rotation shifts. During the construction phase, the weather turned out as one the worst winters in the last 15 years, snowfall started in July, while in winter, storms and massive snowfall prevented us from getting vehicles to the site, so we ended up having to fly the concrete in by helicopter."

Those who'd like to visit the 007 Elements in person can book tickets and learn more via the museum's website – just make sure to take a warm coat.

Source: Obermoser Arch-Omo