In its humble dimensions, this shelter occupies the only geographical inflection on the course of a harsh mountain river. Standing alone at the top of a small hillrock, there rests a platform with a slender column at its center. The platform is barely separated from the terrain by means of four thick columns placed at the middle point of every side. Not only static but seismic, the rotational stress of this concrete structure is controlled by crossed and diagonal beams embedded into the slab. There is a compressed room under this opaque platform, with a structural chimney at its gravitational core. Following the column order, two corners have fixed glass panels and the other two have sliding panels that can be left as open balconies. The interior can be understood as a hut lacking interiority, as a single room barely divided into four equivalent quadrants, with a minor variation given by a detached, monolithic staircase at one corner. Over the roof terrace, the chimney becomes the central pole of a rudimentary sundial (for an imaginary record of circular time). Thus, the experience of this place is bound to its double nature. Depending on the position under or over the artificial ground (a handmade horizon measured with water level), it might resonate with the carved or the aerial world, either cave or a cloud. Metaphors aside, the physical effort of climbing up the hill, at least for a foreign sightseer, should be compensated with an intimate meeting by the fire.
Team:
Client: Fundacion Artificial
Author: Pezo von Ellrichshausen (Mauricio Pezo & Sofia von Ellrichshausen)
Collaborators: Beatrice Pedrotti, Lukas Vadja, Theo Cozzi, Olga Arzur
Structure: Sergio Contreras
Construction: Constructora Natural
Material: Reinforced concrete
Photography: © Pezo von Ellrichshausen
