Architecture Encodes Mountains

Architects imitate mountains. Buildings exhibit qualities of mountains. Their rooves, material, climate, narrative, and phenomenological qualities draw from mountains. People visit them to improve health.

Wim Hof is the fictional client. He pioneers the Wim Hof Method, a breathwork technique that radically improves neurological health. His students perceive his programs as retreats. They offer phenomenological rewards for enduring harsh environmental conditions at scenic destinations.

This building design borrows program elements from Le Corbousier’s La Tourette covent in Éveux, France. It has supported the spiritual elenvation of Lyon residents since its completion in 1960. Its program elements are adapted to a Wim Hof Method course for 52 guests and 8 staff.

Marcel Breuer idealizes a sanitarium as far away from sources of illness, preferably on an island. This project is on decommissioned Oil Platform Holly. Two miles isolates it from urban ailments. Holly is a distant figure off the Santa Barbara coast. Its identity is locally defined as an oil platform. Changing its identity to a mountain suggests an event taking place. Change attracts attention.

The building reveals three symbolic aesthetic layers. From the Santa Barbara shore, the Wim Hof Center appears monolithic, mountainous, atmospheric. Approaching by boat, the platform’s structure and flesh-colored pneumatic pannels look like inflated lungs on a table. Napkin pyramid folds and Frank Stella’s Black Series II inspire the geometric panelization scheme. Each pneumatic panel reads as a fragment, bulging like Alveole. Each façade immitates different mountain faces. Fritting applies a topographical motif that reads as grain.

Small spaces intimate guests. Bonding gives meaning to the experience. Small spaces support the program’s sucess. Ice baths, saunas, and the restaurant gather visitors. Guests meditate, do yoga, and breathe from 8 to 11am; eat vegan brunch from 11 to 12:30pm; ice bathe, sauna, meditate, and learn theory from 12:30 to 7pm; eat vegan dinner from 7 to 9pm; and meditate at 9pm before sleeping. Their experiences coincide.

The program alternates stress and recovery. If the breathing isn’t working, the building feels harsh. The building is mostly unconditioned space. Negative pressure pulls air through the building, chilling occupants. Recovery spaces such as sleeping quarters, the restaurant, restrooms are conditioned. The building encourages suffering, breathing, then recovering.

Architecture encodes mountains. Remoteness differentiates them from urbanity. Pyramid massing forms a mountain figure. Ambiguous form effects a mountain’s resemblance to lungs. Identity transcends scale. People visit them to undergo personal growth. They engage visitors phenomenologically through narrative. Their climate provokes healing. Contemporary alternative health practice buildings can derive architectural content from mountains.

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Casper Clausen