Report: 2. Upper Aare Valley

This area was my first destination; it's home to Hofstetten and the Ballenberg Museum. The area, hugging the upper Aare River and the Brienzersee, is close to the heart of the Bernese Oberland and shows this in its architecture. The Blockbau chalet is the standard style here, similar to the Lötschental. Houses and farmhouses tend, however, to be wider and often more ornamented than their Valais equivalents:

5. Goldern, Hasliberg.

One interesting phenomenon I observed in the area was buildings that had been enlarged over the years and showed this clearly in their outward appearance, often due to different ages of wood (6) or different kinds of siding (7). Naturally, I found enlarged or renovated buildings in other areas, but they seemed especially numerous and notable here.

6. A major expansion — the whole level of new, light wood above the old indicates a new story to the house. Hofstetten.

7. The diagonal border between areas of two different kinds of siding shows the original roofline. Hofstetten.