Hub of Huts / noa* network of architecture
Text description provided by the architects. When noa* designed the cantilevered swimming pool for Hubertus in 2016, the studio envisioned it as a rock stranded between earth and sky. In 2019 a new assignment was granted to the architects, the design of a dedicated well-being extension. It was not an easy task for a building that had already found its symbol in the swimming pool, yet this served as inspiration for the new project.
In the initial research phase, the team of architects examined the new starting situation and captured the house’s atmosphere in its context. From the observation of the surrounding landscape reflected in the swimming pool, the design concept came to life: to materialize what one sees mirrored on the surface of the water, as if the image were a transient rendering ready to be converted into reality. It is a concept that plays with the horizon line, the perception of upside-down, and the points of view.
The new structure is located on the southeast side of the façade, symmetrically the swimming pool. Like the pool, this is also detached from the main building: the platform hovers 15 meters above the ground and is supported by two pillars clad in larch logs, similar to those that punctuate the façade behind. Visitors reach the well-being area via a suspended walkway, which simultaneously opens up to the newly constructed relaxation area, offering space for up to 27 people. On the platform, individual microstructures with gabled roofs accommodate the functional program on two levels. A surprising element is the lower level, where the horizon undergoes a 180° rotation, and the huts appear to be anchored upside down.
The two levels are characterized by a different treatment of privacy, with mainly exposed spaces above and protected spaces below. On the upper floor are two whirlpool baths, two panoramic showers, and a changing room. The lower floor is a textile-free area: the central, enclosed part houses the foyer. From here one has access to the soft sauna, the Finnish sauna, a shower cabin, an ice mist shower, and a third outdoor pool, from where one’s gaze can sweep over the surrounding landscape.
The decision to work with inverted pitched roofs is a choice motivated by formal and functional reasons: on the one hand, the desire to reproduce the architecture of a mountain village, and on the other hand, the practical need to allocate in the inverted roof the water purification system in the case of the swimming pool and the seating tiers in the case of the sauna. Moreover, the offset of the huts and the alternating orientation of the roof ridges allow a 360° view of the landscape, the real centerpiece of the project.
The choice of colors and materials is in harmony with the mountain scenery: aluminum panels in natural brown tones clad the cabins, as well as the thickness of the slab, which is formed by a steel load-bearing beam structure. The brise soleil system that screens the windows is also of the same material and color. The floors are light beige ceramic, while the floor is oiled white oak in the relaxation room.
In this new assignment, noa* has been able to revive the imaginative drive from which Hubertus was born, designing a platform that, with its 20-meter overhang, marks a new floating outpost between heaven and earth. A project where the force of gravity seems to vanish to make way for unexpected scenarios.
