Mountain Kaleidoscope

/ Four houses discussed here represent mountain architecture in various parts of the world. Notwithstanding the different approaches, they have in common a contemporary touch, in conversation with a wide range of cultural and stylistic traditions and – in part – a great deal of attention to detail

MOUNTAIN ARCHITECTURE IS SUSTAINABLE ALMOST BY DEFINITION, but it has also always been an opportunity for experimentation. Evidence of this is provided by the four buildings we present in these pages: a solidly built house from the beginning of the 20th century (the Rothaus), transformed and re-orientated by Jonathan Tuckey in Andermatt, in the canton of Uri (Switzerland); a poetic extension of a chalet petit at Saint-Donat in Canada, in which a small new form has been built alongside and connected with a pre-existing one, with a design by ACDF Architecture; a chalet inspired by the Norwegian hytte, by the Mork-Ulnes Architects practice; and finally a complex made up of a former cowshed and a farmhouse reinterpreted for residential use at Isola, on the border between Italy and Switzerland, designed by the Ruinelli Associati studio. These are all structures with distinct characters and variable dimensions that are united by the

same factor: the need to take a hold on the stunning landscape that surrounds them, which is “sighted” as if with a telescope, viewed through windows that are frames, of a small or large size, or skimmed with suspended passageways, all in the key of an austere and essential language, especially in the composition of the external fronts, the irregular shape of the volumes and in the cladding materials.

The Rothaus is built of wood and raw concrete stained with a pinkish red pigment and stands on a pre-existing set of foundations. With the interplays of forms between the original orientation and new layout, this residence makes obvious allusions to the vernacular theme on the inside and is traversed by a central staircase, from which it is possible to see the shifts in and series of spaces on the various levels. Then there is La Petite Soeur chalet, on the shore of Lake Ouareau, which is conceived as a “little folly” in a nature reserve. The pointed shape of this extension to a traditional cottage seems to “float” on the white blanket of snow thanks in part to its base of raw concrete, set back from the upper floor clad in white planks. This form is almost completely independent, including its orientation, if it were not for the suspended and glazed passageway connecting it to the pre-existing building, which serves as a viewpoint onto breath-taking scenery. And it all begins with a large, out-of-scale wooden frame that speaks of the past and looks to the present. The Mylla Hytte is located an hour’s drive from Oslo, at Jevnaker, and as a reworking of the traditional hytte, a compact and efficient cabin-hut that contains all that is needed in just 84 square metres. Casa ME,

a short distance from the Maloja Pass, is composed of two buildings of distinct type and function whose continuity is provided by the flooring of beaten grout. Its is formed through different sets of spatialities and materials: the cowshed has a base of stone plastered with lime and cement, topped by a hayloft with a structure of interlocking logs (Blockbau), into which has been inserted a volume built of solid larch. The farmhouse has been proposed in its original enveloping form, but with concrete walls pierced by tiny slanting openings, with the exception of a large window to the west that frames the panorama of Lake Maloja. ○