Mountain school · outdoor hubs
Two hubs, one terrace
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The concept
A small outdoor area that works in every season.
Two hubs, one terrace. A shared stone platform on the school's south slope holds a quiet glass pavilion and an open gaming deck, joined by a timber bridge. Both are sized for a class to gather and built to keep working through snow, wind and rain.
Each hub is medium-sized — big enough for a class to split into groups, small enough to heat, clean and repair with the school's own team. The two sit on one continuous stone plinth, so the terrace reads as a single place with two different moods.
72 m²
Total covered area
22
Seats across the terrace
4.4 m
Bridge between hubs
2
Hubs, one shared plinth
The two hubs
Same family, different energy.
Both share the timber deck, the glazing language and the same bolted frame. What changes is how open they are — and how loud they are allowed to be.
Hub 01
Stillpoint
Quiet Hub
Round larch pavilion under a planted, solar roof, wrapped in laminated glass. Eight deep beanbags face inward around a low study table, with the mountain always in view.
- Glass built to take it
- Beanbags on every side
12
Seats
34 m²
Footprint
305°
Glass arc
1.6 kWp
Solar roof
Hub 02
Circuit
Gaming Hub
A hexagonal deck with a folded-plate roof, three glazed wind faces and three open sides. Screens hang beneath the canopy and the whole edge glows after dark.
- Three open sides
- Screens under the canopy
10
Seats
38 m²
Footprint
3
Screens
2.4 kWp
Solar roof
Weather strategy
Four seasons,
no closures.
At 1,600 m the weather turns quickly. Both hubs are designed around the three things that actually stop students from going outside: wind on the face, water on the seats, and snow blocking the door.
Snow
Steep roofs, no flat ledges and a heated deck edge. Both hubs stay open in winter, with the glass acting as a wind shield.
Rain
Deep eaves cover every seat. Both decks drain through the terrace instead of pooling, and the timber is untreated and weathers grey.
Wind
The pavilion is round so gusts slip past. The deck takes glass on its exposed faces and louvres on the corner, keeping one side always sheltered.
Clear
Wide opening between the hubs keeps the mountain view. Roof overhangs shade the glass in summer without blocking low winter sun.
Materials & environment
Built from the valley.
A short, honest material list: local larch and ash, recycled aluminium, laminated glass and two working roofs — planted sedum and solar. Nothing exotic, nothing that needs a specialist to replace.
Stillpoint
Circuit
01
Timber over steel
Around 80% of both structures is timber from regional larch and ash forests — a fraction of the embodied carbon of an equivalent steel build.
02
Roofs that work
Stillpoint is planted with sedum and carpeted in thin-film solar; Circuit's roof fold is clad in PV too. Together they generate about 4 kWp — enough to cover the lighting, screens and deck-edge heating.
03
Light that is needed
Both hubs run on presence and daylight sensors. Nothing glows in daytime, and the evening lighting drops to a low, warm level after hours.
04
Built to be repaired
Bolted frames, standard pane sizes and untreated surfaces. Panels and glazing can be swapped by the school's own maintenance team.