Sverre Fehn describes the horizon as a place between the earth and sky – and it is in this space in which man exists. These liminal “in-between” spaces (or “horizons for man” as he called them) can exist betwixt domains great and small. Horizons can be found between the subtle chaos of the street and the quiet isolation of solitude (this is where “home” is created). They also exist between great domains, such as the interfaces between civilization and wild nature.
And it was here, on the back footsteps of civilization, climbing into the wild threshold of nature in rural Montana, that a horizon was created, and an opportunity manifested.
Project Location
Boulder, Montana
Project Type
Graduate School Capstone Studio
Modalities
Revit, Rhino, Photoshop, InDesign
The Liminal Space In-Between.
Sited at a natural hot springs in Boulder, Montana, we were asked to develop not only a new hot springs facility, but also a secondary program with which to compliment it. As the contemplation of “horizons for man” deepened, it became more and more apparent that a facilitation of the literal and physical passage between the civilized and wild was called for. Thus the secondary program of an outdoor survival school was born.
The Expanded Horizon
Situated at the liminal horizon of the wild and un-wild, the Boulder Hot Springs and Outdoor Survival School serves as a framework for those coming and going between. But rather than existing as a razor-thin split between domains, the physical nature of the architecture was leveraged to instead create an “expanded horizon” to reduce the shock of passage.
This expanded horizon manifests itself in recognition of its parent domains at either end – the heavily structured, “safe” and comfortable spaces are most closely adjacent to civilization, with a receding “barely-there-ness” at the edge of its wild counterpart. So as one transits between these edges, an increasing transparency and un-housed-ness unfolds from the civilized into the wild.
There and Back Again.
For users of the hot springs, this transparency-opacity shift happens entirely within the expanded horizon of the hot springs itself – starting at the most cave-like pools with penetrating light weld, moving to a structured-yet-exposed pool, and finally to remote pools open to the wind and sky. Bathers explore within the horizon, but never fully enter the domain of the wild.
Out of One, and Into the Other.
The outdoor survival school on the other hand, serves as a gentle hand to hold and guide students from the civilized domain and completely into the wild. They begin at dormitory-style housing (where “classroom learning” of survival skills occurs), moving to a group-sleeping platform exposed to the elements, and finally to a series of separated individual sleeping platforms, before moving completely into the wild mountains beyond.
Coming home again, the student’s process is reversed, easing the transition from the wild and solitary to the collective and civilized. From one domain to the other, this expanded horizon makes the passage possible in a way that is conscious and humane.
