Hut of Silver is a small public facility in Attignat-Oncin - a 400 inhabitants village in eastern France. This village is part of the Natural Regional Park of Chartreuse, and a third of its land is woodland. The 17th century Saint-Martin church is an important landmark that stands tall in the centre of the village, together with the Primary School and the Town Hall. In 2018 the District Council launched an open competition to design and build a public landscape feature that would remind a childhood hut, in a woodland adjacent to the church. Hut of Silver was built out of local pine wood by local carpenters and residents. It is an open living space for the neighbours and tourists.
We created a sensory experience based on “space of light”, which is also a main element of the church. The church is oriented toward the East to get sunlight on the altar in the morning. Likewise, the hut is oriented on an East-West axis. The centre of the church is dark and only gets vague light through stained glasses. The hut is surrounded by natural forest and sunlight only reaches the inside through the two East and West vertical openings. In the hut, light reflects gradationally on the silver-leaved ridge beam undersurface. This shining line in the darkness of the interior creates an unsettling continuity between the vertical views of the landscape and its horizontal abstract reflection.
