Design with a view - from above and afar
With summer walks on peaks and coasts coming to an end and winter sports on our doorstep, it's a good time to take a look at the presence of contemporary architecture and design high up in the mountains and in the remote natural places that make us leave the city and remind ourselves that we too are part of nature. Beyond the usual notion of the retro mountain comfort of huts and shelters, both in conceptual design and architecture and in practice, a new generation of mountain buildings and structures is evolving that both invite people to explore wild nature, but also optimize and control the effect of human activity on it.
Architectural objects - sustainable building is mission possible - everywhere
The energy autonomous building of the alpine shelter of Monte Rosa, near Zermatt, Switzerland. A project by a team from ETH Zurich University, led by Prof. Arch. Photos
Completed in 2009 and open to the public since 2010, the 120-visitor Monte Rosa alpine chalet near Zermatt, Switzerland is a literally brilliant achievement in the use of solar energy. Isolated at 2,883 metres above sea level, the building operates in extreme climatic conditions, is completely self-contained, and demonstrates that sustainable design is possible anywhere. With its gleaming silver aluminium cladding enveloping one of the most complex prefabricated timber structures in Switzerland, and with its photovoltaic system integrated into the southern façade, it generates its own power and is nearly 90% energy autonomous. The project is also interesting as an example of a long-term collaboration between an educational organisation - ETH Zurich - and the Swiss Alpine Club, a hiking organisation with over 150 years of history. The successful combination of modern architecture and sustainable technologies ensures broad support for its realisation from civil society, private business and government institutions, which is not necessary for this kind of projects.
Scale in small sites - Norway's National Tourist Routes
The architectural and design objects of Norway's National Tourist Routes arouse the curiosity of the passer-by with carefully considered and well-executed detail and bridge the distance between modern man, accustomed to living in man-made environments, and wild nature. Photos.
A great example of progressive government policy is Norway's National Tourist Routes initiative, which was launched in 2005. It's a huge campaign that has been going on for 15 years and is rethinking the concept of nature tourism, turning it into a culturally active product. The emphasis falls on 'cultural' and does not threaten the economic potential of tourism, on the contrary. To this end, the Government of Norway is asking a wide range of designers and architects to contribute their ideas for impressive but environmentally friendly resting places, observation decks for the mountains and sea, trails with interesting detail and other architectural gems on a small scale. The achitectural sites created as part of the campaign are already effectively shaping the highly attractive new face of the planned tourist routes and contributing to the growing number of visitors to the beautiful but rugged Norwegian countryside - a success that would hopefully inspire other governments to follow a similar path.
In Bulgaria
In the last year alone, there have been several cases in the public domain in Bulgaria of mountain shelter projects that hold the promise of providing not only much-needed protection for tourists in harsh mountain conditions, but also a synthesis of good design and sustainable technology. And while in the Bulgarian mountains, mountain tourist organisations can get behind such initiatives, as in the case of the implementation of the new shelter project on Koncheto, organised by the Mountain Guides Association in Bulgaria, the treatment of the Bulgarian sea is far from the careful attitude demonstrated within the Norwegian government's project. If it is not about surviving in harsh conditions, but simply about the joy of communing with nature, is there any way for good and careful design in a wild natural environment to gain wide public support in this country, and what is the way forward?
Antonina Ilieva, architect
Antonina Ilieva is an architect with an interest in the lively exchange between architectural theory and practice. Currently one quarter of studio dontDIY, Antonina Ilieva has been working on her research on contemporary Japanese architecture in parallel since 2012.