Swiss studio Bureau A has concealed a wooden cabin inside an artificial rock and transported it to a remote site in the Swiss Alps.
Bureau A, a studio led by architects Leopold Banchini and Daniel Zamarbide, developed the mountain shelter to spend tribute to the central character in the novel Derborence by Swiss writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz.
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In the story, a shepherd named Antoine becomes trapped amongst rocks soon after a landslide, and survives there for seven weeks ahead of obtaining his way house. The structure is named Antoine right after him.
“The mountains have the power to call for feelings of fascination and fear at the same time,” mentioned the architects. “Switzerland has a robust tradition of observing the Alps, living with them, hiding inside them.”
The shelter comprises a simple wooden cabin, encased within a concrete shell with the type of a massive rock. The interior is only revealed by a pair of little windows and a recessed doorway.
Inside, the knotty timber has been left exposed on walls, floors and ceilings. Flaps fold down from the walls to produce seating, a table and a bed, so that one particular person can remain comfortably inside.
“Antoine creates an Alpine shelter, a precarious ‘Existenzminimum’ somewhat subversive in its use exactly where one particular can freely enter and hide,” said the architects, whose previous projects consist of a pavilion created from recycled windows and a efficiency space on a tricycle.
“It consists of the quite standard architectural elements – fireplace, bed, table, stool, window – but demands to the visitor some threat taking, as the rock hangs literally on the rock fall field,” they added.
The project was commissioned to host artist residencies for a programme run by the Verbier 3d Foundation. It was constructed by hand in a mountain village and transported to the web site of the back of a lorry.
Photography is by Dylan Perrenoud.
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