School of Architecture Tsinghua University of Beijing
MOUNTAIN HUT An example of a rooted vernacular architecture
Secchi Gabriele June 2014
EPMA _ Architecture Master Program
‘Green architecture’
Secchi Gabriele
June 2014
EPMA _ Master Program
Tsinghua University of Beijing
Mountain hut
Index Abstract ......................... 1
Building & Habitat ......................... 3
The needs of a straight path to follow
.........................
3
Alpine mountain hut case studies ......................... 4
Understanding of the local problematic & solutions ......................... 5
Conclusion ......................... 13
Secchi Gabriele
June 2014
EPMA _ Master Program
Tsinghua University of Beijing
Abstrarct
ABSTRACT
Green Architecture. What’s it? What the meaning behind it in an era of pure internalization?
How can be used the large ammount of case study around the world when the aim of a sustainable architecture is to be as much local as possible? The knowledge in the field, especially for the new generation, need to be based in rooted method to approach the design strategy. Through a deep investigation of the alpine architectue, the paper try to define how a climate-friendly architecture should be seen in the 21th century. The paper starts with a consideration about the system behind the building, his interaction and necessity to be configurated for the unpredictable future. Trhough a schematic explanation of the reason behind the construction of a mountain hut, the paper underline and simple take suggests from the thought back of the knowledge, to reflect about the role and effectiveness of particular choices taken in a vernacular environment.
KEYWORDS
Mountain hut, authenticity, vernacular intervention, localized green architecture, regional history as a
guideline, new technology, internalization
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Declaration of Authenticity
Declaration of Authenticity I the undersigned declare that all material presented in this paper is my own work or fully and specifically acknowledged wherever adapted from other sources.
I understand that if at any time it is shown that I have significantly misrepresented material presented here, any degree or credits awarded to me on the basis of that material may be revoked.
I declare that all statements and information contained herein are true, correct and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Secchi Gabriele
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BUILDING & HABITAT
When you watch and feel that a good architecture works because it seems placed in the right
environment, that’s when an architecture expresses the maximum of itself in a green vernacular way.
“If I throw a brick into the waves, after two hours the sand
and the sea will have operated in such a way to structure channels and contours around the brick, merging it with the beach. After five hours the brick will have found its proper position or ‘place’. I’m interested in finding that ‘place’ for my houses!”
2
G.Murcuttn
INTRODUCTION. The needs of a straight path to follow
Since man exists, the role of an “architect” has always been related to the local condition of the site
around the building. Starting from the ’90s the increased level of internalization became stronger. It can be seen as a good universal way to understand and secondarily solve the problems of the new architecture.
2
S. Amourgis, Critical Regionalism: The Pomona Meeting –Proceedings, College of Environmental Design, California State
Polytechnic University, Pomona, California, U.S.A., 1991 Lecture in CSP University, By G.Murcutt, Pomona, 1991.
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But it can also be seen as a heavy reason to go back to the principle of the profession and put an effort to learn from the History and from the different environment characteristic, especially in the green field. What distinguishes an expert in the green modern situation it’s only the attempt to describe and make proper, concepts already existed and used in the old era. Of course, the technology is playing nowadays an extremely important role also in the concept of the building, but what makes things work is the real understanding of the topic: associate the contemporary & futuristic knowledge to an old tested discipline! This is really the meaning of a great green architecture, not only to adapt the building product to the local condition, but to do it in a clever reliable way. To follow a logic method which can give a real future to the uncertain conditions of the area.
CASE STUDY. Alpine mountain hut case studies
In this paper I would like to give a brief introduction about the Alpine traditional method of how to
build a simple adaptable house. Based on the personal experience (life and study in the area), the aim is to let the reader understand the way of how the multifaceted problems have been tried to solve in such an unfriendly area. The purpose is to emphasise on the local issue and see how the mind of generations of local inhabitants figured out solution in a simple and consolidated way to escape from regional problems.
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PROBLEMS. A well understanding of the local problematic & authentic solutions
To study and deeply understand the case, it is necessary go more into details and specifics of the alpine
climate.
The gravity. His conformation and characteristics in the mountain topography3. How it can be used
to implement the natural insulation of the mountain-faced front. That is simple and bright: try to shape façades in contact with the natural cold-protector soil coming from the mountain. This will create other complication, for sure, but solvable. The point I would like to underline is the elegant idea of how to implement the use of the soil in a green conception. The versatile way to protect the front is usually a pre-air stationary camera; this will avoid the humidity exchange between interior and ground, and is able to host (in term of space) the new and future technology to prevent or implement this dualism.
Pre - air stationary camera, connection between topography and its use to amplify the insulating effect. 3 J. Ruskin, The Mountain Glory, Volume IV, Chapter 20, in Selections from the works of John Ruskin, By Chauncey B. Tinker, Professor of English in Yale College, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908 “[…]For, to myself, mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery; in them, and in the forms of inferior landscape that lead to them, my affections are wholly bound up; and though I can look with happy admiration at the lowland flowers, and woods, and open skies, (where) the happiness is tranquil and cold, like that of examining detached flowers in a conservatory, or reading a pleasant book[…] it appears to me like a prison, and I cannot long endure it.”.
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The natural surrounding. The acoustic, the light and the wind. Their configuration is such a particular
situation. The humble and inevitable ordinary approach to control them. The use of the trees was just a must for the locals. It is the first landscape design, and its interaction with the construction is a fascinating and simple solution for a first layer of protection. The right placement of them and the juxtaposed interaction between them and between the building lets the natural factors dialogue with the delicate needs (depending on the side and the sensitive area’s condition). Usually, especially in the extreme north alpine climate, the trees are planted all around the building (leaving just a socio-needed part for the access of the house). All around but quite distant from it, leaving the shadow touch just the closer ground to the walls but not the their surface. This is laso because the summers time doesn’t require an efficient protection for the exposure. What I still feel interesting in this primal design, is the synergy building landscape. A convoluted way which lets the building play a lone role in the seasonal changing. A separation between the respective parts is a clever but fine result of an adaptive climatic building. The hut can catch by itself and its technology the resources from the site (sun direct & indirect radiation) and at the same time permit the view of the inhabitants. While the protectors (trees) are playing their role: 1) filter the movement of the air, 2) create a barrier for the acoustic external noise, and in a way also 3) delimitate the outside space.
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Natural surrounding, rudimental landscape design, the first approach to configure a protected area for the building.
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The cold, the winter difficulties. The location of the land of use .The 3D conformation of the inner
spaces. Once more the historic reflection trying to define the right placement of the internal function, teach a lot about the instinctive solution found for this typology of home. I remember the answer of an old grandpa when I was questioning him about the disposition of the internal space. “The animals down, the fireplace as a center, the bathroom out, and the kitchen-living as the principal part...” Of course he wasn’t an architect, not even a professional builder, but he built his own home; helped by friends he simply put into substance the summarized knowledge of the entire village.
This is the key point of the discussion, for two reasons.
First. The effectiveness disposition of the human needs related to the climate. I would like to go deep in his affirmation: “The animals down […]” in the sense that when he built the house, he had animals (cows, sheep..) and his reason, has to be founded in their use as natural heaters. So the point was to let them sleep in the local down of the primary facilities, them and especially their nourishment (straw, which is nowadays proved as a really good insulation material). Of course this gives birth to many other problems, but all secondary compared to what he was trying to reach (get more warmth). “[…] the fireplace as a center […]”, a bit also in the sense of Wright would have meant, but in this case, the position is just about the ordinary needs. In a time when the heating system was something out of the area, especially in the high-level mountain, the fire was really the center. For the heat and for the daily activities as well. All the primary facilities were around the fire, and the position of every local was decided in function of it. “[…] the kitchen as the principal part”. Not in the nowadays meaning. The cuisine was the principal room in
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the house, in it there weren’t only table and chairs, but machinery and generators of human activities: from the place to boil and clean the wool to the transformation in a home-dimension dairy factory the kitchen was really more than what is it today. For this, is understood its importance and favorite position in plant. “[…] the bathroom out […]”: well, this is something else, their vision and needs were really different, all the comfort which let us nowadays appreciate this space was still far from that time.
Second, but really the soul of what should be realistic efficient “green” architecture. His way to act; the village’s knowledge about how to build: how sometimes it should become a must for the local people which are going to invade the vernacular environment. The over-emphasis on the regional (I would say village’s) conditions doesn’t aim to be read as an isolated example. The purpose of it is to provide a case of climate-solved problems in relation with the site, the technology, and in particular with the time: the present of the construction and the future one! The elegance and simple strategy (sometimes invisible) of intervention, give to a simple mountain hut the modesty they deserved. A significant milestone of the vernacular alpine architecture.
Functions & their proper disposition in relation with the needs and climate.
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J.Ruskin, Illustration for “The poetry of Architecture” (1837-38), in The Architectural Magazine (February 1938) “[...] yet it was nothing in itself, nothing but a few mossy fir trunks, loosely nailed together, with one or two gray stones on the roof: but its power was the power of association; its beauty, that of fitness and humility.”. J. Ruskin, The AiguilleBlaitière, ca. 1856, in Works, Facing, VI, 230, Scanned image by George P. Landow
Materials, their manufacturing.
The study put an accent also in the small scale solved problems. For almost 4 months per year, more than a few alpine villages were isolated from the rest of the bigger cities. This, combined with the impossibility to transport a large amount of material gave to the inhabitants the only choice to build with extremely local material and technique. (A different discussion it would deserve the heritage of the technique and his limited but powerful exchange between the different valleys and artisans.)
The mountain hut is constantly built in different percentage of wood and stone (manufactured in slices,
big block, leaved rustic, accompanied with mortar, mixed with semi-new chemical elements…); with the rock part on the bottom and the last layer of the roof top, and big trunks or segment of it in horizontal band in the
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middle part along the entire perimeter. Strictly depending on the place in the valley where the building grew up, we can notice that the higher percentage of stone can be seen at the highest altitude of the mountain: really because the resources of wood in this height is less and more difficult to manufacture (low trunk and bushes). The typical one, referring to the 1000 m. a. s. l. more or less, depending also from the microclimate (presence of lakes or new dump construction, open-narrow valley, creek or glacier‌ which really change the morphology of the building) consists of c.a. 65% wood and 35% stones & other materials. The explanation of the data resides in the easy and accessible way to assemble and work with the wood, his insulating character, the layered composition of it in terms of sacrificial surface for the weather characteristic. It was much more easy and controllable work with it instead of multilayered stone cement and lime mortar for all the building. The wood was let to dry out for more seasons, to prevent his movement after the installation (usually on a shady place with a lot of air, this due to control the otherwise irregular movement of the straight trunk). It was installed in horizontal band, trunk after trunk, with a combination of simple join without any artificial nail or other; in the small space between them was inserted insulating material; (interesting is the Finland case, similar for climate is a good comparison for the research: instead of appose unlabored wood, their building were provided with half shaped trunk to let the upper trunk accommodate easily in the bottom one, with a layer of insulating material between them). The paving between the floors and the internal surface were covered with timber, but slices of it, placed in contact male-female for the wall and adjacent each others for the horizontal surface.
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The roof-structure is wood-made (completely different from the Chinese solution for the scheme of Levers and Strengths of the above laden) the alpine way to control the static behind it was a joint of horizontal, vertical and sloping beams. I would like to accentuate the durability of these processes: extremely simple and efficient. No treatment with chemical product (did not exist at that time) but just a real understanding of how the material react to the climate. Time passed and that old used timber became more and more valuable for its elegance in the modern construction. No extreme damage, but just the mark of the time on its surface, still totally usable for any type of application. The nobility of its aesthetics became the proof of the merit of its technology.4
External wall, exaples of different way to solve the insulation. 1) Alpine
2) Finland
4 M. Ligas Tosi, Interview to P. Zumthor, 2nd April 2004, e-article “http://architettura.it” (personal translation) “[…] I think that, in the architectural field, the materials can have poetical qualities. I think that they should ring again and shine, they should be limpid and transparent. The matter of building is the art of conform an essence with sense, started from a multiplicity singularities.. I respectfully look at the art of joining the things, at the capacity of the builders, artisans and engineers. The human knowledge of how to make a project reliable, of how practically something is built, simply touches me. In my work I try to give to my constructions a meaning that can give the gratitude back to this awareness. Moreover , I try to design my constructions that can defy this capacity. I’m truly inside the practice of doing architecture, of building something simply perfect. Architecture should not be abstract, it has to be concrete […].”. Italian version: M. Ligas Tosi, Intervista a P. Zumthor, 2 aprile 2004, articolo digitale “http://architettura.it” “[…] Ritengo che nel contesto di un oggetto architettonico i materiali possano assumere qualità poetiche, che debbano risuonare e risplendere, essere limpidi e trasparenti. Costruire è l’arte di conformare un tutt’uno dotato di senso, a partire da una molteplicità di parti singole. Guardo con rispetto all’arte del congiungere, alle capacità dei costruttori, degli artigiani e degli ingegneri. Il sapere dell’uomo relativo alla realizzazione delle cose, implicito alla sua bravura, mi impressiona. Cerco quindi di progettare delle costruzioni che rendano giustizia a questo sapere e che, inoltre, siano degne di sfidare questa bravura. Sono votato alla pratica vera e propria dell’architettura, al costruire, alla cosa realizzata nel modo più perfetto possibile. L’architettura non deve essere astratta, bensì concreta.[…].”.
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TODAY. Learning from the case to develop a rooted green architecture
The modern chalets appear or are trying to have the same soul of the old huts.
Thanks to the advanced technology, (glass and his field, insulation material, active system to accentuate the relation with the regional condition, static and dynamic engineer…) this typology can develop to a real organism in communication with outside. The new “architectural intervention” of the modernization should try to build a symbiotic product belonging to the site. Knowledge in the green field is a serious matter. The standardization of the education should become more and more speciific, taking a real case study and deeply understand how it works and why there and not in another habitat. A specific figure in this topic is not enough (architecturally speaking), a series of them specialized in the sector of one particular region can be a good starting point for the process. The rooted and deeply confirmed way to build in a specific area cannot be overpassed by others influences just because it is more efficient in another region: the seriousness of the internalization, especially for a green well designed architecture, should be seen as advantage in other terms. Not only for the large amount of information which comes, but for the logical process and the sensibility to the climate of how different people react to different regions. A “new-old” architecture which can deal with local problems, with the sense of the place and the inevitable connection to the inhabitants.
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Habitat5 in the real meaning of the term, with consequences and way to act extremely normal an essential for the area and the peoples who live there.
“There was a time when architecture was made with a concern for the way that the sun fell and the windows blew, and that architecture was a backdrop for human events. It gave meaning and focus to people’s lives; it was a way in which a people and a culture explained themselves to each other, understood themselves, and spoke to the future. To make an architecture today that has that capacity for meaning seems to me to be a desirable thing to seek. To make an architecture that is distinct from what much of today’s architecture has become, that is, packaging and fashion, seems to me to be a way to return architecture to its connection with man and therefore nature. To produce a richer and more meaningful human experience and, in the best sense of the word, to produce a man-centered architecture… that has a meaning for people and a place.” .6
5 S. Amourgis, Critical Regionalism: The Pomona Meeting –Proceedings, College of Environmental Design, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California, U.S.A., 1991 R. Bassani. ‘The term habitat is the right definition to describe the entirety and the natural shade of the place. That’s how the location has to be considered, how the environment has more than an obvious relation with the locals normality day by day’. 6 Public roundtable in order to respond at the question: “What is happening to modern architecture?”,.11th February 1948 in Critical Regionalism: The Pomona Meeting –Proceedings, By S. Amourgis, College of Environmental Design, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California, U.S.A., 1991.
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Related quotation
RELATED CITATION
“[…] We are only beginning to know enough about ourselves environment to create a regional
architecture. Regionalism is not a matter of using the most available local material, or of copying some simple form of construction that our ancestors used, for want of anything better, a century or two ago. Regional forms are those which most closely meet the actual conditions of the life and which most fully succeed in making a people feel at home in their environment: they do not merely utilize the soil but they reflect the current conditions of culture in the region.”7
“There is a spiritual value residing in the particularities of a given joint that the “thingness” of the
constructed object, so much so that the generic joint becomes a point ontological consideration rather than a mere connection”8
7
K. Frampton
L. Munford, The south in Architecture, in Southern Roots + Global Reach: Reflections on a Theme By P.L. Laurence. Centen-
nial Symposium Clemson University, South Carolina, 1941. 8
K. Frampton “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an architecture of Resistance”, in “The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on
Postmodern Culture”, By Hal Foster, Seattle, Washington, Bay Press., 8th October 1979
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Related quotation
“Perhaps we need to understand the awareness of a code not in a regular and
classicist sense but as the search for a minimum level of acceptability and sharing. Adolf Los says that man is elegant when he disappears among the others (in western civilization) […]” 910
9
C. Zucchi
Marco Casamonti, Sentimental education: a dialogue among Marco Casamonti, Pier Paolo Tamburelli and Cino Zucchi,
Milan, 2012
10
Marco Casamonti, Sentimental education: a dialogue among Marco Casamonti, Pier Paolo Tamburelli and Cino Zucchi,
Milan, 2012 C. Zucchi: “In designing I start from a pragmatic and not semantic element of the architecture, how to solve the distribution problem. I’m sick of hearing all these architects who in order to build a little cottage first have to explain their “mission”, their “vision”, their world of tomorrow. In the sense, a certain “bourgeois is discretion” can even be revolutionary, there are times when keeping quiet is a form of radicalism.”.
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Bibliography
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Ruskin, The Mountain Glory, Volume IV, Chapter 20, ca. 1985 in Selections from the works of John
Ruskin, By Chauncey B. Tinker, Professor of English in Yale College, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908
L. Munford, The south in Architecture, New York, 1941 in Southern Roots + Global Reach: Reflections on a
Theme By P.L. Laurence. Centennial Symposium Clemson University, South Carolina
Giò Ponti, Amate l’architettura: l’architettura è un cristallo, Soc. editrice Vitali-Ghianda, Genova, 1957
Giò Ponti, In Praise of Architecture, translation by Dodge Corporation, New York, 1960
K. Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an architecture of Resistance”, in The Anti-
Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, By Hal Foster, Seattle, Washington, Bay Press., 8th October 1979 S. Amourgis, Critical Regionalism: The Pomona Meeting –Proceedings, College of Environmental Design, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California, U.S.A., 1991
P. Zumthor, Thinking Architecture, Konkordia Druck GmbH, Bühl, Birkhäuser, Basel, Boston, Berlin,
1996
Zhang Bo, En Jingxuan, Luo Zhongzhao, Comparison Of Chinese And Western Architecture, China
Intercontinental Press, 2008
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Bibliography
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Flat World, Routledge, , Abingdon, Oxon, 2012
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