LISI has arrived in America – yet she remains connected to her home and draws her concept from basic raw materials located in Austria.
The tree is essential for Austria. Almost 50% of the country’s area is covered by forest. With the tree as a role model, LISI too is organized into four primary base structure elements: the service core, modeled after the sustaining trunk, the floor, giving the needed foundation just like roots, the divided framework that spreads similar to branches and finally the collapsing facade, which is flexible just like her counterpart, a leaf-dress.
The tree is not only of symbolic value to LISI, even in a purely materialistic way, wood forms the basis for all parts. The construction – mainly spruce from companies Storaenso and Steico – the finishing – oak parquet from Admonter, white fir roof boards by Tschabrun, thermal ash decking from Frischeis – or even wooden construction materials such as oriented-strand boards by Egger Company all the way to wood fiber insulation from Gutex – almost everything in and around LISI is made of wood.
Using this design, rooted with Austrian values and traditions, LISI is getting ready for the competition in California a couple of days from now. Go Team LISI!

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A small part of Team Austria has arrived in California to settle some final arrangements regarding organization. We met up with Wicked Campers, a fresh company hiring out vans, and were able to get them on board to support LISI and her Decathletes in terms of transportation in and around Orange County.
Having gotten familiar with the highway network, we rushed to Los Angeles harbor for a very important appointment. After a short, unexpected detour across the port district, past trucks and shunting locomotives, we finally arrived. There she was, lying peacefully in the calm waters of the freight port: Mol Excellence – the ship that brought LISI from Germany, through the Panama Canal, all the way to LA; and we are here to collect her freight.

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For 5 months, decathletes have been prefabricating LISI in the alpine town of Weissensee, however, the time has come to say ‘Good-Bye’. LISI has been successfully sent on her voyage a couple of weeks ago and soon, Team Austria will follow. Our landlord in Carinthia has invited the students for a farewell dinner to his residence in the mountains.
Situated on a mountainous slope, we were welcomed by music from his accordion and Kaiserschmarrn – a traditional Austrian dessert – by his wife. We shared a pleasant evening. Standing here in the mountains, looking at the beautiful landscape, you can’t help but feel a bit sentimental of what has been accomplished, not only in the given amount of time, but also with the prevailing circumstances. Thank you Weissensee, it has been incredible.

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This is it, the day everybody has been working towards and waiting for. A final controlling look is being cast onto the loading diagrams. Check! The sound of the last container closing its doors is overshadowed by the sound of 6 huge trucks slowly making their way up the mountain. They have come to pick up LISI, or rather, LISI’s individual parts. Two days were dedicated to properly loading the trucks; this included weighing each container to ensure road safety regulations were met both in Austria, as well as the United States. Palfinger was giving us a helping hand by providing a brand new powerful mobile crane. Their largest actually.

LISI’s next stop will be Salzburg, where she is being transferred onto a freight train headed for Bremerhaven, one of the larger cargo ports in Europe. From there on, the route’s humidity will increase dramatically. Crossing the Atlantic with a wooden house is not to be taken lightly. Luckily, we have professionals from Deufol cushioning each container with moisture absorbing bags hence thereby dramatically reducing the risk of component damage.

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Feels like it’s Christmas already. On a daily basis, we are receiving packages containing reserve material, living accessories and wood as far as the eye can see. We have to hustle since the day of departure is drawing near and we still have to pack some final things that cannot be missing in California. The construction site is a busy bee hive as everyone is shuffling about, however, thanks to Naturfair, we have had a spacious hall for the last half year, capable of holding all those extra deliveries.

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With temperatures climbing to an all-time-high of 40°C (104°F) in recent weeks, many Decathletes are finding it rather difficult to stay focused in the mid-day sun. The heat even inspired Johannes to create his own “helmbrero”, a combination of a helmet and a woodboard sombrero. Take the shade with you.
If you are smart, you take your swimtrunks and bikini with you to the construction site in the morning, in order to use the opportunity to jump into the close by Weissensee lake in the afternoon. Such welcome refreshment.

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