The University of Stuttgart has designed SkinOver Reed, a thatched hut in the Austrian Alps, as part of its research into renewable materials that can be used in high-altitude Alpine regions.
A team from the university's institute for building materials (IBBTE) developed the hut, which has been shortlisted in the small building category for Dezeen Awards 2020, for the German Alpine Club (DAV) as an experiment to test the capabilities of thatch as an alternative building material to typical Alpine structures.
Top: the hut is located in the mountainous Vorarlberg region. Above: thatch was used for both the roof and sides
"We found out that building skins in Alpine architecture are either stone, concrete, metal or wood," architect and lecturer Anke Wollbrink told Dezeen. "DAV asked us if we could research or imagine an alternative, renewable material to meet their standards and especially their climate goals."
The material can be "almost analog to concrete"
It built the hut in Vorarlberg, Austria in August 2019, after two years of research and project development, on top of an existing stone foundation.
"We rediscovered the material thatch, which allows for a very three-dimensional design, almost analogue to concrete," Wollbrink said.
"This fascinated us right away and led to further research and the idea of building a prototype thatched envelope. We also researched contemporary thatch architecture and found beautiful strong exam...