Tam Yun Tak

• BA Hons Architecture
• Self-Sufficiency and New Sustainable Paradigms: Autonomous Alpine Huts of the European Alps

For over a century alpine walking and climbing have been supported by an extensive range of huts from simple bivouacs to multi storey buildings. The majority of huts are comparatively accessible, while others are located in remote or difficult to access high altitude sites and provide safe refuge in places where ordinarily it would be difficult to sustain life without shelter. With the growing popularity in alpine tourism there is pressure to design huts, particularly those at high altitude with minimal environmental footprints. In recent years a number of new huts have been commissioned that forge new sustainable approaches to material resource use, energy conservation, energy generation, water use and waste recycling. This project will investigate how this new generation of alpine huts contribute to the experience of climbers and walkers, how their materiality (structural, material and energy strategies) affects the notion of "shelter" and how this interacts and responds to the atmosphere and sustainability of place.

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisor: Dr Neil Burford