Spectacular Prefab Panoramic Restaurant Pops Up on Austria’s Karren Mountain

Austria’s Karren Mountain just unveiled a spectacular addition to its rooftop restaurant that suspends diners above the city with <a href="http://inhabitat.com/solar-powered-restaurant-aan-zee-rests-lightly-in-the-dunes-in-the-netherlands/" target="_blank">gorgeous vista views</a>. Designed by <a href="http://www.arsp.cc/projekte/karren" target="_blank">Architects Ruf Stasi Partners</a>, the glass-encased panoramic dining room balances on steel columns over the mountain and above the valley below. Materials for the addition were prefabricated nearby, then flown by helicopter to the hard-to-reach site, which is 3,136 feet above sea level.

The Panoramarestaurant Karren extends the already popular dining room and <a href="http://inhabitat.com/cable-car-system-crowns-urban-revitalization-project-in-rio-de-janeiros-alemao-favela-complex/" target="_blank">cable car facility</a> at the visitor center at the top of the mountain.

In order to avoid obscuring the views from existing structures, the architects chose to “float” a clear glass and steel volume above a paved terrace.

Rooted in the mountain, the steel columns rise to meet the glassed-in dining room, giving visitors a closeness that the previous terrace could not provide.

From the Panoramarestaurant, visitors can marvel over <a href="http://inhabitat.com/zaha-hadid-unveils-mountaintop-museum-for-reinhold-messner-in-the-italian-alps/" target="_blank">panoramic views</a> of Switzerland, Germany, Lake Constance and the Rhine Valley, all from the comfort of their dining chairs. The beautiful restaurant compliments the utilitarian cable-car station, wrapping around it to create architectural harmony with the mountain landscape.

The existing timber restaurant was also given a facelift with prefabricated timber elements that were also airlifted to the site.

The popular mountaintop center can now accommodate twice as many hungry travelers who visit the top of the Karren mountain for its <a href="http://inhabitat.com/rock-restaurant-is-a-tropical-culinary-dream-perched-in-the-middle-of-the-ocean/the-rock-restaurant-zanzibar-3/" target="_blank">breathtaking views</a>.