Younes Bounhar

OBJETIVO

Our starting point for the design of Horizon was the Powder Mountain tradition of rallying to watch the sunset: a gesture of togetherness and an acknowledgment of the natural beauty of the Wasatch Mountains. We sought to shun ostentation and scale back architectural excess. Vernacular building traditions embrace both unity and variety by employment type and variation within a system. We used a material palette derived from the simple cedar-clad barns in the Eden Valley below Powder Mountain. Restrained cedar-shingled roofs, vertical shiplap cedar walls, aluminum-clad wooden windows, and cedar interiors establish a calming, monolithic look which is simultaneously contemporary and timeless, modest and monumental. The sculptural effect complements, rather than fights, the beauty of the mountain vistas. The challenge of building on the Mountain required innovative design which respected the rugged environment and short building season. Horizon Neighborhood embraces these limitations. Steel stilt foundations are intended to allow the cabins to sit well above the deep snow and support them from powerful winds. As the buildings step up the steep mountainside, each cabin favors southwest sunset views through the Ogden Pass to the Great Salt Lake Basin. The cabins are positioned to maximize views while mitigating the sunlight of Utah’s high desert ranges. These design approaches work with the local climatic patterns and forces, rather than attempting to combat them, resulting in buildings which are climate responsive, sustainable, and harmonious with the Mountain.

CONTEXTO

Horizon is the first pre-designed neighborhood to be built at 9,000 feet elevation on Powder Mountain, Utah. It consists of 30 cabins ranging in size from 1,000- 3,000 square feet, along with a series of strategically placed garages, and a communal lodge called the ‘Pioneer Cabin’ for the use of the homeowners. Buyers choose from four typologies, which either follow the contours like mountain goats, or are cross-grain, projecting off the mountainside like extreme skiers. The cabins are then customized for each owner. The theme and variation strategy, in combination with the dramatic topography, results in a neighborhood that has a powerful sense of both unity and variety. Commissioned as a home base for Summit Series, an ambitious speaker program that attracts a community of innovators and social impact investors from a broad range of fields, this new village is an architectural expression of Summit’s values: community building, climate responsiveness and land stewardship. This isn’t another ski resort, but rather a planned community for entrepreneurs and creatives working together to address global challenges.