Pinwheel Shelter - Bivouac Stefano Berrone | EX.

“Our tools are better than we are, and grow better faster than we do. They suffice to crack the atom, to command the tides, but they do not suffice for the oldest task in human history, to live on a piece of land without spoiling it.”

Engineering and Conservation, The River of the Mother of God, Aldo Leopold

PINWHEEL SHELTER

a rigid tent - a fully reversible foldable wooden structure - installed at 3.000 meters of altitude.

EX. - a design workshop founded by Andrea Cassi and Michele Versaci, also authors of the Black Body Mountain Shelter - has designed a new mountain bivouac in the western Alps, located at an altitude of 2.850 meters above sea level. 

The shelter, built in memory of Stefano Berrone, is a folded wooden and aluminum shell situated on a remote scree slope in the Valley of Seguret Mount, in the north-western Italian Alps. This discreet intervention in the alpine landscape takes the form of a rigid tent with a faced shape. It has been designed following the analysis of sun exposure and wind directions, fostering a continuous dialogue between the architecture, the valley morphology, and its atmospheric agents. 

The architecture primarily provides shelter and protection for alpinists, and at the same time helps to explore the relationship between an artificial structure and its natural environment. This investigation delves into the project's long-term impact on the natural context and its interaction with the surrounding environmental conditions.

The project is based on three key principles: 

1/ REVERSIBILITY AND LIGHTNESS. The pinwheel shelter is a light, minimally invasive, and reversible structure. The constructive technology has been chosen according to these principles: a structural shell composed of CLT panels, supported by a steel base resting on four prefabricated plinths have been designed both to optimize weight and to facilitate assembly and dismantling operations. The result is a dry system built in four days and easily dismountable.

2/ ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE. The relationship of the architecture with the alpine environment led to the definition of a spatial device that enables a 360-degree fruition of the landscape. This is achieved through four windows inserted in the multifaceted geometry of the shell. The aluminum shell defines an ‘atmospheric’ architecture, engaging in a dialogue with the alpine light, the colors of the rocks, and the surrounding snow slopes. It creates a constant interplay of reflections and responds dynamically to changing weather conditions.

3/ A TENT AS A MEETING PLACE. The radial organization of the space defines the position of the beds around a central compartment – a symbolic fireplace – following proportions that remind a tatami. The reduced internal height and the sloping roof have been designed to not stand inside the bivouac: like in a tent, the alpinists must duck and either sit or lie down on the wide larch wood platform. This spatial configuration resulted in eight/ten beds minimizing the shelter’s dimension, and particularly its height: the top point measures 2,80 meters corresponding to the top of the shell on the outside. 

LOCALIZATION

The structure is in the Upper Susa Valley, specifically between the ridges of Mount Seguret and Valfredda, between the municipalities of Oulx and Bardonecchia.

The localization responds to landscape logic and respects the distance from the skyline. Furthermore, it gives the possibility to add another stopover useful to the high-altitude paths crossing this zone frequently subject to thunderstorms and sudden meteorological changes. A few ruins are scattered around the Seguret valley, but no other structure sustains the mountaineering activity.

The localization chosen defines a new base reducing the distance between the Oulx and Bardonecchia valleys, and the other bivouacs situated both in the Galambra zone and in Vallone delle Monache. Together with the Sigot and Blais bivouacs and with the Valfredda shelter, this new structure allows to add a stopover along the Ambin Traverse: a hiking and ski-touring route going up from Rochemolles or Jaffreau to the Ambin Mount and then descending to the Clapier Pass. This shelter allows an alternative path and defines an intermediate stop, reducing the distance between other supporting shelters.

The localization of the Pinwheel shelter answers territorial planning logistics, essential for the design and construction of emergency bivouacs, and has been defined with the participation of local authorities.

CREDITS

The bivouac construction has been possible thanks to Ilaria Perron Cabus, Francesco Bogetti, their family and friends, and the ABC Group, in memory of Stefano Berrone.

Thanks to the Municipality of Oulx. 

A project by EX. 

Design team: Andrea Cassi and Michele Versaci with Serena Giardina, Alberto Benetti (architectural design), GZMZ (renderings), Corrado Curti (structures), Guido Zanzottera (building envelope), Secondo Antonio Accotto (geological report), Paolo Bottino and Marco Trucano (Natural House). 

Construction:

Wooden structure, envelope and installation: Natural House (Paolo Bottino, Giuseppe Bertetti, Marco Trucano, Roberto Merlo, Ullah Assad, Gianni Testa, Bottino Legnami, Wood House snc, Serramenti Casale); Mattia Moretto, Guido Ambrosiani, Alberto Pignata.

Foundations: Perfor (Fortunato Treve, Giorgio Pourpour, Sokol Krasniki) and Faure Calcestruzzi 

Transportations: Heli Aosta 

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