The Bonati Bivouac (bivouatti) is a shelter for the A Neuve’s glacier. The A Neuve’s hut is a refuge at 2735m altitude that needs an extension of it’s dormitories.

The construction needed to be demountable and re-mountable due to the sites altitude.

The wood construction system is related to vernacular swiss construction (Raccard) and allows, with a better insulation, to have the right shelter on these heights.

This structure was constructed by 20 EPFL students from the studio EAST. The whole construction was made without any machine. We used Japanese saws and wood chisels. No metal, no screws and no nails. Everything is made in wood (exception made for the Hamac)

For this structure we used a parametric software (grasshopper) to readapt the choices of form, general mensurations and wood plank mensuration to our project’s evolution.

The conception phase was made in 3 weeks, construction in 10days.

There were no carpenters in our team, only architecture students.

The project tries to relate to vernacular swiss construction and to express the perilous aspects of the A Neuve’s site.

It  also relates to Semper, a theoretical architect who had a fond feeling to the importance of the envelope in the « original huts ». Here we tried to make a hut, only made by structure, where envelope becomes a structural object. The interesting aspect of the « joints » show’s that structure and ornement can sometimes be in-dissociable.

This was our first construction. (1 to 1)

Articles:

24 heures http://bit.ly/2CM5vu6

Tribune de Genève http://bit.ly/2Dfj6uL

Le Nouvelliste http://bit.ly/2kOsCNh

Camping des Glaciers www.camping-glaciers.ch

EAST 2017