Tasked with developing a Colorado campsite with unique views, architect Kevin Hirth made these dreamlike illustrations depicting a cloud-shaped viewing platform floating amongst the trees.
The consumer – described by Denver-based Kevin Hirth as eccentric – requested a layout that would provide overnight guests with an unprecedented vantage level more than her extensive house, which is located in a mountain valley in Gunnison County.
The architect created a proposal that he feels solves two issues. By making an elevated plaza, campers will be able to see much more of their surroundings, but will also be far more protected from native wild animals, which incorporate mountain lions and black bears.
“Overnight guests find refuge and shelter through elevation rather than enclosure,” said Hirth.
“By lifting the sleeping platform into the forest canopy, the overnight camper can sleep freely in the open air and below the night sky without need to have for shelter from wildlife.”
The platform itself is imagined as a hybrid steel and wood structure with a scalloped underside, reminiscent of a cartoon cloud.
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At its centre is a stack of four precast concrete columns, which frame a climbing ladder and also type chimneys for two open fireplaces. This stack will form the primary structural anchor for the platform, which will also be supported by the surrounding tree trunks.
“As it floats between the trees of the site, making use of them for structural support, the platform maintains a contradictory presence in the forest that permits it to seem suspended weightlessly,” explained Hirth.
“As a totem on the hillside, the stack provides visitors a indicates to orient within the valley with no obstructing the view of the crest of the hill past.”
Diagram
The “eccentric webbed construction” of the platform will comprise a network of crisscrossing semicircular discs. These will be clad using a canvas normally utilised for tents, producing them fire resistant.
“By electing to maximise structural efficiency between store-fabricated steel parts and web site-assembled wood framing, the construction achieves a lightness and flexibility that would be tough to coordinate with a single technique alone,” added the architect.
Prepare
The team is at present seeking financial backing to make the venture a reality. If built, it would be in a position to host up to twenty people for overnight stays and up to thirty people for modest events and gatherings.
