Summit Powder Mountain Competition
As a community with a philosophy of innovation,
cultural enrichment and environmental conservation, and a core ethic of
personal growth and influencing positive change in the world, the project aims to challenge the elitist notion that the proposed cabins on Powder Mountain
should all be permanent residencies for only a select few people.
Instead, each ‘Nest’ belongs to the mountain
and the wider community, as places for all to be able to experience and learn
from. With only 500 allowable ‘homesites’, the nests are used as temporal
places of physical, mental and
spiritual growth. Maintaining a sense of perpetual motion keeps Powder Mountain
from ever becoming owned and privatised. Remaining a place of personal
exploration, learning and growth, for everyone to use, the Summit group are
able to give back to the local community and encourage their ethics to be
disseminated back into the wider population with each person’s life they
change.
Trees have long been sacred amongst human
civilization, not just for their use as firewood and construction, but as a
deeper, more symbolical entity. The act of planting and nurturing a tree
becomes a powerful grounding tool, creating one small solution to the ever
growing environmental crisis. There is a beauty in how plants and animals work
symbiotically together, with the trees using our waste CO2 within their
photosynthesis process, in turn releasing vital oxygen for us to breathe. A
very delicate balance is struck in a mutually dependant relationship, where one
cannot live without the other.
Each nest harnesses this dependency, creating a
space where one can come, plant their ‘Autumn Blaze’ Maple seed and live
amongst nature, the seasons and the elements for a whole year. Acting as ‘back
to basics’ retreat, which is inhabited by a different person every year, each
nest gives the occupant a chance to reconnect with the earth, and to discover a
more sustainable and connected lifestyle. Observing the Wheel of year is
an ancient practice used to mark the seasonal shifts, and to help understand
and predict the world around us. Each season gives way to different
challenges, requiring the occupant to continuously adapt to their
surroundings.
Once the year turns to an end, the inhabitant
replants their 3-5ft Maple tree in the surrounding natural forests of Power
Mountain, creating a forest of memories and leaving a constant connection between
the departed occupants and the trees they helped nurture into maturity.
Creating a village of miniature greenhouses, scattered across the mountain, the
Nests account for a slow, but sure progression towards reforestation.
The design concept takes the concept of off-grid living
back to its essence. Instead of using high-tech sustainable solutions, each
nest uses a very low tech, passive approach, relying upon a human touch. The
occupant has to work both physically and mentally to survive, making fire to keep
warm, pumping fresh water to wash and drink, and closing and opening their nest
to protect from the elements.
These nests are not just retreats to escape
from the stresses of modern day life, they also take away all luxuries,
niceties and unnecessary items, teaching an appreciation for what is important
and what is needed to live a more primitive existence, in tune with nature.
