BIV PUNAKAIKI

Biv offers high-end accommodation for travellers in a reinterpretation of historic gold miners’ huts, with the form of the cabin referencing their chimneys and the skylight the top of the smokestack. Like its predecessors, it treads lightly on the land via a concrete floor suspended on only a few piles amid no formal landscaping. To complement the steel exterior, a timber interior was chosen and highly insulated to ensure it maintains a stable temperature with no need for human input (although a small fire was installed for ambience). Extensive glazing offers an allencompassing experience, while the minimal but luxurious facilities keep the focus on simplicity without sacrificing comfort. Along with low energy input, low embodied carbon while maintaining durability was an important factor in the material selection, with cross-laminated timber offsetting the higher carbon of the concrete and aluminium.