In situations such as amusement parks, seaside resorts and other popular holiday destinations, an analogous architectural expression is rarely a problem. Everything there is dedicated to tourism – indeed, tourism shapes the entire surroundings and no holds are barred in tempting the visitor. Wilderness or nature tourism, however, calls for a difficult compromise. A tourist building in a wilderness has to be plainly visible and to occupy a location where travellers can reach it and will wish to take advantage of its accommodation. On the other hand, it must be shielded by its natural surroundings and if possible merge into them so thoroughly that it is practically invisible. The same paradox is present in wilderness tourism itself: people wish to enjoy the natural surroundings without feeling distracted by crowds of fellow tourists, yet they themselves inevitably disturb and undermine the tranquillity they seek. The architects responsible for these buildings generally aim at a design which iconic and immediately comprehensible, yet which harmonizes with the natural surroundings and relates to it more or less mimetically. Another analogy with nature arises here, for mimesis is raised to a fine art and is crucial to survival, if anywhere, in the animal kingdom.

The new Monte Rosa Hut is anything but self-effacing. The design of this alpine shelter is iconographic but with mimetic traits, at least in conception. The irregular polygonal shape and the shimmering aluminium skin suggest a piece of rock crystal such as one might conceivably find in the vicinity. But this is a crystal of gigantic proportions. What could have been mimesis is transformed by sheer scale into pure iconography. The shape, a sphere liberally chopped into an irregular polyhedron, is strong and defensive, holding its own against the harsh, rugged environment. It does not claim that this landscape could be inhabited in any normal sense. The uncompromising form has seemingly landed on that particular spot from outer space and is determined to survive there amid the hostile environment. The metal skin reflects the rocks, the sky, the snow and the sun, camouflaging the building so well that it blends almost perfectly into the landscape. It is this visual oxymoron of being there yet not being there that makes it such an intriguing design.
The hut was built at an altitude of 2,883 metres on the western flank of Monte Rosa, within sight of the famous pyramid of the Matterhorn, on the Swiss side. It was designed by students and professors from the architectural department of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, and was completed in 2009. The Swiss Alpine Club had asked for a replacement of their old hut by a new design which would be highly sustainable in terms of energy and ecology. The Monte Rosa Hut harvests solar energy from eighty-five square metres of photovoltaic cells. Surplus electricity is stored in valve-regulated lead-acid accumulators. Thermal energy is also recovered from the expelled ventilation airstream. Summer meltwater from the glaciers is collected and stored in a large reservoir, behind the permafrost barrier of the rocks.
The target was ninety percent self sufficiency in energy. The Monte Rosa Hut doubles as a research station dedicated to studying efficiency in the use of energy and other resources. With its isolated location in the high Alps, it is in some respects an experiment in autonomous ecology. Some of its results will be specifically relevant to high mountain construction projects, but much of the research will have a general bearing on the urban environment. The foundations of the building are made of stainless steel, while the complex interior is fabricated entirely in wood. The beams in the restaurant area are decorated with incised lines like the contours on a topographical map.

To enjoy nature yet to remain as invisible as possible, to celebrate solitude in the natural landscape without feeling crowded by other tourists who share the same passion – these are some of the self-contradictory longings addressed by the Norwegian architects Jensen & Svodkin in their Juvet Landscape Hotel project in northwestern Norway. They started consider the potential scope of the notion of “sustainability”. In their opinion sustainability is not only about saving energy in production and operation, but also the conservation of topography. Conventional building procedures require radical destruction of the site to make way for the foundations and infrastructure. Jensen & Skodvin see conserving the site a token of respect for nature that precedes and succeeds mankind. A careful reading of the topography can also establish a fruitful dialogue between the geometry of the building and irregularities of the natural site, enhancing qualities of both. Each building of the Landscape Hotel rests on an array of 40 mm diameter steel rods drilled into the rock, leaving the topography and vegetation almost untouched.
Hotel rooms are conventionally packed together into a larger building, but the rooms of the Juvet Landscape Hotel are in chalets distributed over the woodland terrain, minimizing their visual impact on the environment. Every chalet has one or two walls entirely of glass, and each is aligned to give its occupants an exclusive view of magnificent natural surroundings, while remaining out of sight of other guests to assure privacy. Each chalet adapts to the topography of its site with an individual design. The interiors are muted in character, maximizing the impact of the wealth of nature visible through the picture windows.

A building on the beach in a seaside resort has to cope with a split context: on one side there is the untamable sea, and on the other there is a civilization and community. The challenge is not to gloss over the contradiction but to mediate between the sea and town with something that is visible and exciting. How can an architect reconcile the vastness of the sea with the mundane amusements of a beach resort? In their design for the East Beach Café in Littlehampton, a small town on England’s south coast, the London based Heatherwick Studio produced a mediation on the seascape. The café echoes the shape of clouds hovering over the sea and of breakers rolling along the beach. They blended these references into a strongly visual, highly designed icon that will catch everyone’s attention. Inside, tourists can take a coffee or a beer while enjoying a view of the real clouds and real breakers.
The new building was a replacement for a seafront ice cream kiosk. The site was not an easy one to design for: it was narrow, compressed between a parade of houses and the sea, and exposed to the weather and vandalism. Heatherwick Studio pondered how to design a long, narrow building without giving it flat, two-dimensional facades. They therefore sliced the café diagonally into ribbons. These wrap upwards over the building to form a multilayered protective shell, which is visually open to the sea on one side and closed towards the car park on the other. Rather than use a traditional structure with one component resting on another, the primary structure is a steel shell in which all the parts act together. The shell has a steel outer layer which simultaneously forms the skin and the supporting structure.
The surface of the building is raw and weatherbeaten. The steel shell is finished with an oil-based coating that permits a rust-like patina to develop without degrading the structural performance. The East Beach Café, completed in 2007, has brought new life to a quiet seaside town and acts as an inviting beacon for tourists.