Bond fans can now go undercover and board a cable car ascending 10,000 feet into the Austrian Alps, before experiencing a real-life “lair”, and dining at the glass-walled Ice Q gourmet restaurant featured in Spectre.
The award-winning mirrored glass building, designed by Johann Obermoser, offers panoramic views from the Gaislachkogl Mountain in the Alps of Sölden, southwest Austria, giving fans a well-deserved license to chill as they sip their martini… shaken, not stirred of course.
A 12-minute cable car journey to the summit leads you to the peak’s cable car station, also featured in Spectre, where guests will most likely be met with the iconic greeting “I’ve been expecting you, Mr Bond”.
Built precariously on a bed of permafrost the den, named 007 Elements, will feel just like a supervillain’s lair inside, with the temperature of the building kept to 1C (33.8 F) in order to prevent its foundations melting – so thermals are a must for any budding agent making the trip.
Inside the purpose built property – constructed from mostly steel, concrete, and glass – James Bond’s production designer, Sir Ken Adam, has ensured the space radiates the same raw sex-appeal as the movies’ sets.
Nine chambers contained within the structure, which is partially embedded in the mountain, lead guests through several interactive exhibits where scenes from the iconic 24th James Bond film, Spectre (2015), were choreographed.
The property’s main plaza boasts slanted windows that hang in a perilous, James Bond-style over the depths of the Tyrolean valleys below.
After admiring the lair guests can make their way to the Ice Q restaurant, which featured as a medical clinic “Hoffler Klinik” in Spectre.
The 007 Elements lair was built by EON and MGM Studio, the production companies behind the films, as a ‘cinematic’ experience that is meant to take the place of a standard museum.
A crew of builders that rotated every few weeks was required to construct the unusual structure due to the harsh conditions at the peak, with helicopters called in to finish the job.
