Despite the fact that the recent pandemic has discouraged all proximity between individuals – which is the key element of the typical mountain “shelters”, where spaces are narrow and shared, in order to optimize space, heat, and materials – the mountain is still the open space par excellence: a place where social distancing and isolation are easy to maintain, and where, at the same time, it’s easy to get in touch with the natural environment.
Immersed in this context, bivouacs embody the quintessence of the challenge of essential living in extreme conditions, and it is right in the essentiality of the functional and performance requirements that lies the extraordinary charm of these places. They are all declined in a variety of abstract forms, but none of them tries to mimic the surroundings or to follow the picturesque imitation of traditional buildings on lower heights.
10 new bivouacs in the Alps
Bivouacs embody the quintessence of essential living and experimentation, with shapes that emancipate themselves from picturesque imitations of traditional structures.
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- Roberto Dini and Stefano Girodo
- 22 June 2020
Many recent realizations in the Alps are characterized by an extensive experimental focus on finding innovative technical/architectural and formal solutions. However, in the majority of today’s structures, we are seeing a trend that favors a more "low tech" design approach, with technologies that are already well established and often more cost-effective. High altitudes therefore represent an avant-garde "laboratory" for architecture and construction, capable of intercepting and interpreting changes in the environmental and cultural context, addressing many current issues such as the relationship with the landscape, the search for technical and material solutions, energy supply and management, reversibility, the economic and social sustainability of interventions.
This project, which won the 2015 international competition for the reconstruction of the Fanton Bivouac, and was awarded in 2018 the Golden Medal for Italian Architecture by Milano Triennale, is currently under construction. The Forcella Marmarole notch (2,700 m) in the Belluno Dolomites will host the fiberglass body of the bivouac, which is characterized by its large size and atypical "telescope" shape that faces the bottom of the valley.
Positioned just a few meters from the summit of the Dormillouse mountain (2.908 m) in Susa Valley, Matteo Corradini Bivouac looks like a black metal parallelepiped, with the two extremes of the structure lower than the central area, which hosts the entrance and is the only part of the bivouac resting on the ground. The interior, characterized by warm swiss pine surfaces, is composed of a system of large wooden steps that lead you to the big windows that offer a great view on the Italian valley on one side, and on the French valley on the other.
Even though this bivouac isn't in the Alps, it curiously recalls the concept of the bivouac on the Dormillouse. It is located along trekking paths that aim at enhancing the value of a remote context. Made with very limited resources thanks to the contribution of many volunteers, it was assembled on site (1,780 m), starting from a steel frame. The interior is insulated with wooden slats and the exterior is covered in metal sheets.
This “asbestos-free” project for the Pennine and Lepontine Alps bivouacs led to the replacement of four obsolete "Apollonio - Fondazione Berti" bivouacs that were built between the 1960s and 1980s, characterised by the presence of asbestos in the body - i.e. the Farello on Alpe Veglia (2,447 m), the Antigine (2,855 m), the Camposecco (2,335 m) in Valle Antrona and the Lanti in Val Quarazza (2,125 m). The four mass-produced new structures consist in a simple but functional X-lam loadbearing “box” assembled on site, wrapped in crimped metal sheet and characterized by few openings and minimal furnishings.
The shelter, located at an altitude of 2,230 m in the Vallone di Vassola in Val Grande di Lanzo, provides a shelter to excursionists for a maximum of ten beds. It is outlined by an archetypal triangular section warped by wooden doors and sheltered all the way to the ground by red metal sheet slopes. It is the twin of the Gias Nuovo bivouac (1,900 m), which was installed the same year in the nearby Vallone di Sea, in order to provide a shelter for the people doing sport climbing activities in the area.
In Val Varaita, in correspondence of the Longet hill and its lakes (2,647 m), we find the ogival structure, made of wood and steel, with panoramic frontal windows of the Enrico Oliver Bivouac; It was first assembled and set up in the workshop, then disassembled for the transport and finally reassembled on site. It can accommodate up to six beds.
This bivouac is the result of the 2012 international competition “Essential living in the Alps”. Even though it was quite difficult building it, it is located at the Valzellazzo Pass (2,016 m), in the Cimon della Bagozza peaks. The wedge-shaped structure, made of laminated wood, composite panels and a zinc-titanium layer, can accommodate up to seven people and is fully equipped with all the necessary.
The winter bivouac located a few meters from the Pradidali shelter (2,278 m), in the centre of the Pale di San Martino, is one of the four winners of the 2018 edition of the “Costruire il Trentino” Award. The small hut with minimalist wooden interior and grey metal sheet roof is built on an existing ruin, aiming at a discreet integration into the landscape.
Inside the Triglav National Park, in the Julian Alps, a glittering metal half-barrel is located at an altitude of 2,090 m, replacing and reinterpreting a previous structure designed in the 1930s by engineer-alpinist Karlo Korenini, which in turn looks like a reinterpretation of the legendary Italian Ravelli model.
It is located at an altitude of 3,550 m, at the base of the Lyskamm’s Nose, in the Monte Rosa peaks. The irregular prismatic structure, consisting of four modular units made of wood and black metal sheet is designed to accommodate up to six climbers.