[HN Gopher] Staying in Zumthor's Swiss Wooden Cabin
___________________________________________________________________
Staying in Zumthor's Swiss Wooden Cabin
Author : abhv
Score : 42 points
Date : 2022-11-22 23:06 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (abhvio.us)
(TXT) w3m dump (abhvio.us)
| zkdev wrote:
| What is there to do in a small Swiss village with no shops?
| abhv wrote:
| Hiking, skiing, exploring. Some people still raise goats,
| sheep, animals in the high mountain country. They make
| exquisite local cheese from the milk.
| lm28469 wrote:
| Your version of hell is my version of paradise.
| lajosbacs wrote:
| No shops is a feature.
| ggambetta wrote:
| Peter Zumthor is one of my favorite architects <3 Therme Vals is
| just spectacular [0]. Zumthor is all about plain surfaces and 90
| degree angles (maybe he used the Wolfenstein 3D editor to make
| his plans?) but somehow Therme Vals feels like being in an
| underwater cavern.
|
| I don't know if I'd live in a house designed by him (although the
| author of this article seemed to love it). Might be too
| minimalistic -- thinking of the Kunsthaus in Bregenz for example.
| Of course this cabin is made of wood, not concrete. But in terms
| of a house that feels like a home, I'd go with Alvar Aalto; his
| designs ooze cozyness in a way that Zumthor's don't, and for a
| famous architect, they feel surprisingly pragmatic and sensible
| :)
|
| [0] https://7132.com/en/therme/thermal-baths-and-spa/overview
| abhv wrote:
| We also visited Therme Vals; that was the point of our trip.
| While I love the majesty of stone Vals, which have these huge
| stone slabs that hang above your head with small gaps, his
| houses in Leis are the human-scale version of his emotional
| approach to space.
| CaptainZapp wrote:
| The problem with the Felsentherme is that it was sold off to an
| investor, who intentionally wanted to make it exclusively
| available to well heeled hotel guests.
|
| While you can still visit it as a non-guest you need to reserve
| in advance and prices are 60 francs (~60$) on Monday / Tuesday
| and 80 francs on other days.
|
| Even though Switzerland is an expensive country such prices for
| a spa visit without any extras are beyond the outrageous.
| abhv wrote:
| -- Indeed, we didn't want to support that hotel, which is why
| we stayed in Leis. I'll add that to my post.
|
| -- Like everything in Switzerland, it was easy to reserve
| spots online. I think we went on a Monday. Therme Vals is a
| well-designed space, and the spa experience includes ~18
| different zones and temperatures. Some of them are gimmicks,
| but nonetheless delightful play of space, sound, temperature
| and texture (stone).
|
| Our family isn't into the pampering-spa experience, but I
| think all of my children can still describe that place 1yr
| after---worth it for me.
| ggambetta wrote:
| Hmmm just checked Hurlimann Spa in Zurich and the day pass is
| CHF 39, so CHF 60 for Therme Vals doesn't look outrageous at
| all?
|
| Are we even talking about the same complex? Felsentherme is
| in Austria, apparently?
| lobochrome wrote:
| In Switzerland everything is expensive, but it is still worth
| it even at 60 francs.
|
| The poster has a point, though, in that after the sale the
| vibe changed. The connected hotel used to be reasonably
| priced for their smaller cabins/rooms to stay the night after
| a soak in the Therme. Now the entire Hotel is focused on
| Chinese/middle-eastern wealth clients. They even have (or at
| least used to last time I checked ~2019) free helicopter
| pickup within Switzerland if you stay there (as if heli
| traffic in the valleys wasn't annoying enough already).
|
| I used to go there after hiking in the mountains for a couple
| of days, and it was a fantastic cap to a short excursion into
| nature, spent without showers in mountain huts. It's just not
| possible anymore - and apparently not desired by the new
| owner.
| cinntaile wrote:
| Pricey for a wooden cabin... 3100 CHF ~ 3100 euro for a week
| during low season for the 2 cheapest cabins.
| abhv wrote:
| low season, long weekend, 1850chf.
|
| We are a family of 5, and in Switzerland, that means 2 hotel
| rooms x 3 nights. Staying in Zumthor's cabin is certainly a
| splurge, but marginal utility of staying in a special place
| well exceeds marginal costs.
|
| Also, if you are irrationally nostalgic like me, the renting
| experience felt like how airbnb felt in 2011...before all the
| bad experiences which have swamped it in the last 5yrs
| snickmy wrote:
| For the architect / construction engineers out there.
|
| I'm always a bit concerned where I see those wood projects I
| really wonder about two aspects:
|
| 1- thermal conductivity. How well isolated can they be when you
| have full beams of wood with one side outside and one inside.
|
| 2- durability. I really appreciate wood for SOOO many properties,
| but what is really the realistic durability of woods? from an
| ecstatic standpoint, from a maintance standpoint (do I need to
| regularly treat it), and from a functional standpoint (what
| happen with heavy duty use)?
|
| Would love some inform opinion
| johnofthesea wrote:
| 1- Those beams under the roof on the picture are not part of
| the interior. There is probably some insulation between
| construction and outside cladding. There is also some in-
| between construction.
|
| 2- If outside is painted it needs to be repainted at some
| point. There are also untreated facades or facades treated with
| fire [0]. Untreated wooden facade must have air gap behind to
| prevent rot. In case of untreated wood - color and shape is not
| stable. But in case of facade this is not issue. Structural
| elements and window/door frames should be treated though.
|
| [0]: ie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakisugi
| brudgers wrote:
| 1. In the winter trees don't freeze solid, and firewood burn
| rate has an inverse relationship to log diameter.
|
| 2. Wood durability (species and quality being equal) depends on
| cyclical moisture exposure. Submerged timber can remain intact
| for centuries. In the rain forest the same wood might rot in a
| few decades.
|
| From a construction standpoint, the glass in the house would
| dominate the conductive heat losses of the wall assembly.
|
| From a maintenance standpoint, one piece of old wood is
| fungible with a new piece and two 2x4's properly nailed
| together are stronger than a single 4x4...that's why light
| frame construction uses double top plates, jack studs, etc.
|
| Aesthetically the potential for patina is a reason an architect
| might choose wood _finishes_.
| whyenot wrote:
| Wood structures in Switzerland can last an extremely long time.
| My relatives own a farm in the Bernese Oberland and the main
| farmhouse/barn is made almost entirely from wood and is at
| least 300 years old. There is a neighbor's farm house that has
| wooden beams in it that, after some investigation, the owner
| thinks are more than 500 years old. Another family member owns
| a wooden home (near Mammern) that is about 150 years old.
| 13of40 wrote:
| For the first question, not a perfect answer, but my family
| owns a log cabin in the Pacific Northwest, and the logs retain
| heat. Go there any time of the year when nobody's been around
| for a while and it's like stepping into a refrigerator, but if
| you light a fire and keep it burning all day, the walls heat up
| and it gets liveable inside. It's a bit of a downer if you just
| stop by for lunch, but it's great for a 4-day weekend.
| abhv wrote:
| 1-- First snow of the season occurred our first night. My
| memory is that the walls never felt cold. We started a fire
| using that granite cylinder fireplace. You pack it with about
| 12 logs, light it and then shut the door tightly. It burns the
| wood efficiently over several hours and then continues to
| radiate ten+ hours of heat into the house. Overall: very
| comfortable.
|
| I think the beams were 6" of solid wood.
|
| 2-- Alpine woods are incredible. The table top in that picture
| was unfinished. The instructions of the house say that if you
| spill something, you just wipe it off with a damp rag.
|
| I was terrified of eating fondue or jam-and-bread with my kids
| there, thinking we would mess up his table. Fact is: we did
| have spaghetti and spilled sauce, and the damp rag treatment
| didn't leave any stains.
|
| Zumthor also seems to have a big family and there is evidence
| his grandchildren operate like normal kids in that place.
|
| My son gave me a wooden box carved from alpine wood, and the
| maker intentionally kept it unfinished. The maker told me that
| the oils in the alpine wood provide a natural protection; +1 yr
| later and that box sits in our kitchen holding salt. It has
| developed a natural patina despite lots of mid-sautee grabs,
| opens, and pinches.
|
| TLDR: like cedar, ipe, and other special woods, I think the
| wood used to build this house will last a long time in that
| natural environment.
| snickmy wrote:
| Fascinating. thank you for sharing
| huhtenberg wrote:
| In related news, the Villa Vals featured on Netflix Most
| Extraordinary Homes series (with a hobbit-like circular facade,
| dug into the steep slope with an access tunnel) is also available
| for rent
|
| https://www.villavals.ch/
|
| Also remote as heck, rented for several days at a time and with
| pretty much nothing to do there, but eat. Fantastic build though.
| dpatru wrote:
| The cabin's webpage is here:
| https://zumthorferienhaeuser.ch/m/en/homes/oberhus
|
| It shows the floor plan.
| michaelbenjamin wrote:
| beautiful pictures! sounds isolated but that's part of the appeal
| I guess. interesting that it isn't better known given how famous
| Zumthor is, thanks for your post!
| cassepipe wrote:
| I am disappointed there's no mention of energy
| management/insulation. Seems even more relevant for a high
| altitude cabin, living far away from civilization. What's its
| impact on its environment? For the price of the stay for a week,
| I would expect something clever on that aspect of the building.
| ThePadawan wrote:
| It might not seem like that to the author.
|
| This cabin is at ~1500 meters of altitude, in a village with a
| road and several other buildings. For rural Switzerland, that's
| not living far away from civilization - that's just living in
| civilization. I would even assume you get normal postal service
| like every other place in Switzerland not separated from the
| outside world by cable car.
|
| I'm sure it's worth investigating about the architecture of
| e.g. the huts of the Swiss Alpine Club [0]. These are up there
| in the ~3000 meters range, only accessible by multi-hour hikes
| and only seasonally maintained. German-language Wikipedia has a
| great lot of information and pictures [1].
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Alpine_Club
|
| [1]
| https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_H%C3%BCtten_des_Schw...
| abhv wrote:
| I totally agree with you. The hutli experience is also very
| special for different reasons.
| galfarragem wrote:
| It's a wood plancks cabin with rockwool insulation in the
| middle of the wall. I believe central heating works via wood
| burn.
| galfarragem wrote:
| Architect here.
|
| An analogy: staying in an (artist) architect house is like having
| a meal in a Michelin restaurant.
| abhv wrote:
| +1 even more so, because I could see the small flaws and gaps
| that Zumthor may tolerate in a personal dwelling, but may not
| fly in large-scale projects.
|
| Lesson for me: perfection isn't necessary for the experiences I
| want from exceptional architecture.
| googlryas wrote:
| Wouldn't it be more like Thomas Keller cooking you whatever he
| is having on a random Thursday night? Executed with style, but
| not overbearingly perfect like one might expect from a 3
| Michelin star restaurant.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-11-24 23:01 UTC)