dc.description.abstract |
Today many people venture the mountains for outdoor recreation, whether it is for summer hiking, rock climbing or winter adrenaline-pumping sports such as skiing and snowboarding. Before the 18th century, nobody but a handful of scientists or topographers would even dream of endeavouring into the mountains. Now mountains are more accessible than ever. Villages are constructed at the foot of the mountains with roads leading to machine powered chairlifts that carry herds of people up so that they can enjoy all that it has to offer, especially the heavy snowfalls in winter. Many skiers and hikers venture into the backcountry to be one with nature, looking for better snow conditions, natural features, and most of all to escape the crowds. Riding and hiking the unpatrolled and untamed backcountry is often adventurous but can be very unpredictable and dangerous. Weather can often change without warning in a matter of minutes. Swift blizzards are extremely dangerous for those who are exposed to the unsheltered alpine. Providing a hut for mountaineers in this untamed alpine landscape is vital for their survival. As an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand contains some of the most exposed and consequently unpredictable mountains. Of all these mountains Ruapehu is known notoriously for its unpredictable weather. At such an isolated site, skiers and hikers not only need a place to rest during a physically demanding day, but also a place for salvation when the weather becomes too violent. This hut will not only need to combat the described climatic issues and consider the challenges of topography, accessibility and servicing, but it will also need to accommodate and integrate the necessities of a conventional mountain lodge and a salvation mountain hut. This thesis aims to examine the challenges of building an autonomous hut that can function and provide the necessities of mountaineers in the alpine region, and as a result provide an alternative solution to building in such conditions not only for the site specific Ruapehu, but for similar extreme alpine conditions. The proposed designed will provide mountaineers safety as well as comfort through the use of innovative technology and materiality. The hut is a flexible structure, which transforms in configuration depending on the variable climatic changes. In the relaxed state, the hut is open, exposed and maximizes the use of sunshine. When threatened, the hut transforms into a salvation hut, where the durable outer shell encloses and protects the internal structures. |
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