Picture this: a bright red pod perched at 2,300 meters in the Italian Alps, measuring just 4 by 2 meters, designed to shelter nine climbers in an emergency while also serving as a cultural outpost for a contemporary art gallery. If that sounds like a wild concept, well, that’s because it is.
The Aldo Frattini Bivouac, designed by the research and design studio EX., is part of something called “Thinking Like a Mountain,” a biennial program organized by GAMeC (Bergamo’s Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art) that explores the relationship between art, landscape, and ecology. But unlike your typical art project, this one involves helicopters, emergency shelter protocols, and a whole lot of mountain weather.
Designer: EX. (photos by Tomaso Clavarino)
Located along the Alta Via delle Orobie Bergamasche in Val Seriana, the structure replaces a decaying asbestos shed that was no longer safe for climbers. The design team, led by Andrea Cassi and Michele Versaci, approached this project with a humility that’s refreshing in contemporary architecture. They weren’t trying to create some iconic landmark that screams “look at me” from across the valley.
Instead, the bivouac takes its visual cues from classic alpine tents, those temporary shelters that early mountaineers relied on during their high-altitude adventures. The exterior is wrapped in a lightweight fabric skin made by Ferrino, a Turin-based company known for mountaineering equipment. This rippling, shimmering material gives the structure a sense of impermanence, almost like it’s acknowledging its own fragility against the backdrop of ancient mountains.
The construction process was its own kind of adventure. Because the site sits at such a high altitude and is accessible only to experienced climbers, traditional building methods were out of the question. The solution? Prefabricate the entire thing in three parts, weighing about 2,000 kilograms total, and have a helicopter drop it into place during a brief weather window before snowstorms rolled in. It’s the kind of logistical puzzle that makes you appreciate the careful planning behind what looks like a simple structure.
Inside, natural cork lining provides both thermal and acoustic insulation, creating a surprisingly cozy refuge against harsh alpine conditions. The space is engineered to accommodate up to nine people through a carefully choreographed arrangement of beds that unfold from the walls when needed. Most of the time, it might sit empty or shelter just one or two climbers. But in emergency situations, every inch of that compact interior becomes crucial.
What makes this project fascinating is its dual identity. Yes, it’s a functioning emergency shelter that serves a vital practical purpose for alpinists. But it’s also an extension of GAMeC’s cultural reach into the alpine environment. The gallery isn’t trying to stage exhibitions up there or host events. Instead, the bivouac serves as what they call an “observatory,” a place for gathering data, images, and environmental monitoring that helps create connections between Bergamo’s urban context and the mountainous terrain to the north.
This approach represents a kind of anti-artwashing, if you will. Rather than imposing bold artistic statements onto a landscape, the project tries to listen to and learn from the culture of the Alps. The architecture becomes a medium for presence and observation rather than display, a subtle but significant shift in how we think about bringing art and design into remote natural spaces.
The red fabric exterior is deliberately vulnerable looking. It flutters in the wind, showing creases and movement rather than presenting some pristine, unchanging surface. EX. describes it as “embracing fragility as an aesthetic,” a rejection of the idea that mountain architecture needs to be sleek and immaculate. In a way, that fabric skin becomes a kind of truth-telling, acknowledging that all human structures in the mountains are provisional and temporary when measured against geological time.
Supported by Fondazione Cariplo and Fondazione della Comunità Bergamasca, the Aldo Frattini Bivouac might just be one of the smallest buildings you’ll read about this year, but it punches well above its weight in terms of ambition and thoughtfulness. It’s a reminder that good design isn’t always about scale or spectacle. Sometimes it’s about finding elegant solutions to complex problems while respecting the environment you’re working in, even when that environment is barely accessible and completely unforgiving.
The post This Tiny Red Shelter in the Alps Blurs Art and Architecture first appeared on Yanko Design.