WILD PLACES AIMING HIGH


When the French Alpine Club decided to build the Refuge du Goûter – a climbers' refuge 3,800m up Mont Blanc – it chose Groupe H as architects to work on the daunting and complex undertaking. Kath Hudson tells the story


T


Groupe H's Nikolaï Bersenev: "This was a once in a lifetime challenge."


70 CLADGLOBAL.COM


he challenges faced by the team creating the Mont Blanc mountain refuge, the Refuge du Goûter, must have initially seemed insurmountable. Extreme weather conditions


rendered the site inaccessible for eight months of the year. Altitude made the work physically challenging and meant getting workers and materials on-site was a complex logistical exercise. In addition, there were no existing services up the mountain to power the construction, so the building had to be completely self suffi cient energy-wise, both during construction and in operation. As this type of structure had never been attempted before, there were no precedents. And, to cap it all, the building had to be a spectacular architectural showpiece – and to come in on a tight budget. For Nikolaï Bersenev, from Groupe H


Architecture & Engineering, these challenges made the project even more appealing, although at the outset there were doubts


about whether or not it would be possible to build in such an inhospitable location. “This was a unique chance – one which comes along once in a lifetime – to build something on an exceptional site,” he says. “When we were researching the project, we didn't fi nd any buildings at the same altitude to use as an example, so we had to produce a proto- type for nearly everything.” This meant new systems had to be invented, prototyped, built and tested before they could be deployed.


FRENCH ALPINE CLUB Client the Club Alpin Français (French Alpine Club) made the decision to build the refuge in 2004, to cater for the 5,000 people who climb Mont Blanc each year. The Club is a federa- tion of over 410 climbing clubs and already runs 125 refuges for its 90,000 members. It was decided the building should sleep 120 people; Bersenev acknowledges this isn't big enough, but also says it's as big as it can be without having a negative impact on the environment – an important part of the brief.


CLADmag 2015 ISSUE 1


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132