Rooms with a View

The YURT:Village—a project which provides gathering, sleeping, and service spaces—hugs a gentle slope within an aspen grove, providing magnificent views of the iconic Grand Teton mountain range in eastern Idaho. INTERSTICE Architects designed the site to be in use year-round in all seasons and climates, while carefully preserving the existing landscape with minimal-impact construction.

 

Interconnected Village

INTERSTICE configured the village around a central lodge yurt, from which fans a group of prefabricated structures—several smaller sleeping yurts—that are interconnected by decks and gathering spaces. The project creates a single village with sinuous platforms that trace the native landforms that surround them, including the jagged crags of the Grand Tetons. Aspen poles reclaimed from a modest clearing of the site provide a variety of functions—variegated screens, guardrails, an organizing device—that blends the structures with the native vegetation while providing privacy and wind protection. Dissolving into paths that flow outwards towards the surrounding landscape, the platforms create an informal courtyard around a central fire pit. A modest utility building with a shared shower of native stone and generous interior daylight complete the experience.

A Swiss Army Knife

The village is a hybrid of off-the-shelf components (prefabricated yurts) and unique, site-specific landscape elements (decks, boulders, and earthworks). This makes the outwards appearance of the yurts appear uniform and cohesive as an overall community. However, INTERSTICE included highly customized interiors to provide an unexpected experience of comfort  within the generic outer shells. Within the personalized sleeping yurts, a highly articulated central core operates like a Swiss Army knife, unfolding to become a bedroom, bathroom, office, and storage closet, all within the 16-foot-diameter circular plan. The central lodge yurt incorporates an independent internal machine for living: a simple, richly detailed, geometric volume dominates the vaulted space, and also houses a kitchen, a mud room, and storage, providing space and services for cooking, dining, and gathering with friends and family.

• Commercial
• Landscape