Sorafurcia (BZ), Italy
Led by Lukas Runngger and his design team, the Network of Architecture (NOA) has created a new extension for the Alpine-based Hotel Hubertus called “Hub of Huts” located in South Tyrol.
Between heaven and earth, in a picturesque place amidst the Dolomites, lies the architecturally unique Hotel Hubertus in Olang.
A place of peace. A place of joy.
A place of inspiration.
In front of the hotel is the Alpine Panorama: the imposing Dolomite peaks with their impressive rock faces, who are silent witnesses to the forces of nature that shaped this special region.
Borders disappear against this backdrop; borders between architecture and landscape, heaven and earth, man and nature.
The Hotel Hubertus site is a fitting place for the Italian studio NOA’s immediate, new eye-popping extension design.
The Hub of Huts is located on the southeast side of the Hotel Hubertus, parallel to a projecting glass-bottomed pool the studio created for the Italian resort in 2016.
It forms a “natural continuation” of the resort’s existing well-being zone.
NOA’s Hub of Huts is inspired by the reflection of the water to evoke “the architecture of a mountain village” mirrored on water through a play on sightlines and horizons.
Supported by large tree-like columns, the structure group of inverted and upturned micro-structures with gabled roofs collectively form a “Zen-like refuge” for the Alpine hotel.
“The inspiration came from the element of water,” states NOA Founder Lukas Rungger.
We thought about the possible activities such as standing, sitting, swimming, floating horizontally, diving upside down,” he explains.
“Each of these positions has a different horizon, and from this interplay of perspectives, the idea of the project came to life.”
The studio’s architectural feat of structurally achieving this cantilevered gravity-defying vision was by no small measure.
“An imposing steel cantilever structure supports the platform, which even brought the engineers to the limits,” Rungger adds.
“The asymmetrical assembly was a huge structural challenge, including a complex allocation of technical compartments hidden inside the houses.”
Dividing the extension into a series of “huts” guaranteed that the new project was human in scale and coincided with the concept of resembling a village.
“The positioning of the micro-structures recalls the layout of a mountain village,” continues Rungger.
“One moves from space to space as one goes from house to house, from warm to cold, from dry to wet, from up to down.”
Similar to the NOA-designed swimming pool of 2016, the new extension projects out from the hotel’s main platform and is raised 15 meters above the ground and accessed by a suspended walkway.
The deck is engineered with a cantilevered steel slab and two large steel columns that are clad in larch, camouflaged as tree trunks.
On the upper floor of the Hub of Huts are two swimming pools with showers and changing rooms.
Below the Hub appearing to be upside-down is a foyer with two saunas and a third swimming pool.
Here, in the inverted cables, NOA hid the water purification system for the pools and form the tiered seating for the saunas.
The interiors are designed to preserve the focus on the mountain views.
The windows feature a brise soleil shading system.
“The lower level of the platform causes a feeling of estrangement in the observer,” adds supervising architect Gottfried Gruber.
“As one descends, the temperature rises and the environment becomes more protected.”
“It feels like a descent into the center of the earth, with the poles reversing.”
Project: Hub of Huts
Architects: Network of Architecture (NOA)
Lead Architects: Lukas Runngger and Gottfried Gruber
Client: Hotel Hubertus
Photographers: Alex Filz
