HUT Z8@(x,y) and HUT 019@(8°27'51"/46°36'42") are two mountain chalets. Both are sited in the Western Alps. Both are primarily to provide shelter. And both stand in an inhospitable and freakish landscape as the one artefact.

Designing for the mountains is different to designing for the inhabited world. Other rules obtain, and fashion and history play another role. The landscape is at once strong and fragile. Every balance between setting and artefact is unsteady. In the mountains, climbers shouldn't make mistakes. Nor should designers.

The first, HUT Z8, is a climbers' survival capsule that can be placed anywhere in the mountains - hence the designation @(x,y). This hut is fully geared to its primitive purpose, providing a warm, dry, safe place. It is part of the mountaineer's kit - helmet, coat, shoe and anchor in one.

HUT 019 by contrast was designed for a most specific place: 8° 27' 51" N by 46° 36' 42" E. It is a large mountain chalet, a hotel in fact, with sleeping accommodation for 180 and all kinds of facilities to make one's stay there pleasurable.

Where HUT Z8 is primarily geared to its function as survival cocoon, HUT 019 seeks to exploit the surroundings.

This latter Alpine hut is a monument against 'mountain chalet kitsch'. While traditional huts claim to fit into the landscape, this one slips literally into its surroundings. Not along the usual lines through a sturdy materiality, but in its thoughtful placement and use of visible camouflage.

The cosiness of this design has nothing of the usual cuckoo-clock ambience and comes in a modern variant.

Place of education: TU Eindhoven
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Bert Dirrix, Jos Bosman & Els Zijlstra