It is already being praised as a "revolution", "energy miracle" and "milestone". The New Monte Rosa Hut in the Upper Valais region of Switzerland. It lies there like a polished stone, the dazzling future. Exactly 2883 meters above sea level, with a view of the Matterhorn. Surrounded by the Gorner, Grenz and Monte Rosa glaciers, somewhere far below is Zermatt in the Upper Valais. The foundation stone for the New Monte Rosa Hut has been laid and those who know the plans and pictures are already talking about the "mountain hut of the future", a "milestone for high alpine construction", a "revolution". The work of the Swiss Alpine Club SAC, which will be opened in September 2009, will certainly be unusual and avant-garde. Because it is no longer a traditional hut with creaking floorboards and stuffy dormitories, but a habitable environmental project with a "polygonal" floor plan that is 90 percent self-sufficient in energy for hot water, heating and waste disposal and produces only a third of the CO2 emissions per person and night of the previous hut.
The idea for the revolutionary hut with the beautiful name "Glänzling" came from students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ). Under the direction of Professor Andrea Deplazes, they spent four semesters tinkering with the mountain structure, which is based on the principle of a thermos flask. They even initiated a "Studio Monte Rosa".
Making new from old!
Their work on the Dufourspitze replaces a dilapidated stone house that was built more than a hundred years ago in 1894/95 and named after the patron family "Hütte Betemps". While mules had to carry the components over the glacier when it was built, the Rotenboden mountain railway station and helicopters are now being used. Some 200 tons of wood alone have to be transported. The idea of building a cable car specifically for the construction site was abandoned for cost reasons. The SAC sees the architectural mountain crystal on the Gornergrat as a "fulfillment of the promise to adapt to the needs and wishes of the guests where necessary, financially and ecologically justifiable." The new hut will have a total of six floors and space for up to 120 guests. While cold aluminum gleams on the outside, the inside should be as cozy as possible - for example with open half-timbered elements, small cozy parlors and beds made of beech and spruce wood. The cost of the revolutionary hut magic: four million euros. Text: Stefan Ruzas / Monte-Welt.com To the "hut"
