Architecture

Mirrored cabin reflects the stunning Swiss landscape

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As its name suggests, Mirage Gstaad is located near the town of Gstaad, in Bern, Switzerland
Doug Aitken/Stefan Altenburger
As its name suggests, Mirage Gstaad is located near the town of Gstaad, in Bern, Switzerland
Doug Aitken/Stefan Altenburger
Mirage Gstaad is made from wood and steel, with an aluminum mirrored finish
Doug Aitken/Stefan Altenburger
Mirage Gstaad's mirrored finish covers the entire exterior, and most of the interior, except for a wooden floor
Doug Aitken/Stefan Altenburger
The cabin is named Mirage Gstaad and is part of Aitken's wider Mirage series, which includes two other cabins
Doug Aitken/Stefan Altenburger
"As Mirage Gstaad pulls the landscape in and reflects it back out, this classic one-story suburban house becomes a framing device, a perceptual echo-chamber endlessly bouncing between the dream of nature as pure uninhabited state and the pursuit of its conquest," says the press release
Doug Aitken/Stefan Altenburger
If you'd like to visit, Mirage Gstaad is a fifteen minute hike through the snow from the nearest train station in Gruben
Doug Aitken/Torvioll
Mirage Gstaad is inspired by a traditional cabin in the American west
Doug Aitken/Torvioll
Mirage Gstaad will remain on the Swiss mountainside for two years
Doug Aitken/Torvioll
As its name suggests, Mirage Gstaad is located near the town of Gstaad, in Bern, Switzerland
Doug Aitken/Torvioll
Mirage Gstaad is made from wood and steel, with an aluminum mirrored finish
Doug Aitken/Torvioll
Mirage Gstaad's mirrored finish covers the entire exterior, and most of the interior, except for a wooden floor
Doug Aitken/Torvioll
Mirage Gstaad was part of 2019's Elevation 1049 art festival that also included other artists and performances that recently took place over two days
Doug Aitken/Torvioll
"As Mirage Gstaad pulls the landscape in and reflects it back out, this classic one-story suburban house becomes a framing device, a perceptual echo-chamber endlessly bouncing between the dream of nature as pure uninhabited state and the pursuit of its conquest," says the press release
Doug Aitken/Torvioll
If you'd like to visit, Mirage Gstaad is a fifteen minute hike through the snow from the nearest train station in Gruben
Doug Aitken/Torvioll
Mirage Gstaad was part of 2019's Elevation 1049 art festival that also included other artists and performances that recently took place over two days
Doug Aitken/Torvioll
Mirage Gstaad is inspired by a traditional cabin in the American west
Doug Aitken/Torvioll
Mirage Gstaad's mirrored finish covers the entire exterior, and most of the interior, except for a wooden floor
Doug Aitken/Torvioll
View gallery - 17 images

American artist Doug Aitken has installed a mirrored cabin atop a mountain in Switzerland. Inspired by the archetypical traditional cabin in the American west, the project serves as an art piece and will be open to visitors for two years.

The cabin is named Mirage Gstaad and is part of Aitken's Mirage series, which includes two other cabins: one in the Southern California desert simply called Mirage that's inspired by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and another called Mirage Detroit that puts a mirrored American suburban home into a former State Savings Bank dating back to 1900.

As its name suggests, Mirage Gstaad is installed on the Videmanette mountain near the town Gstaad, in Bern, Switzerland, and is situated at an elevation of 1,202 m (3,493 ft). It's made from wood and steel, with a mirrored aluminum finish. This covers the entire exterior and most of the interior. The striking structure reflects the slowly changing landscape around it.

Mirage Gstaad is made from wood and steel, with an aluminum mirrored finish
Doug Aitken/Stefan Altenburger

"As Mirage Gstaad pulls the landscape in and reflects it back out, this classic one-story suburban house becomes a framing device, a perceptual echo-chamber endlessly bouncing between the dream of nature as pure uninhabited state and the pursuit of its conquest," says the press release. "Situated against the backdrop of Videmanette in Gstaad, Mirage Gstaad will bring the idea of the Manifest Destiny and the American West into contact with the European landscape and the tradition of the sublime."

The cabin was part of the Elevation 1049: Frequencies art festival that recently took place over two days. This year focused mostly on live performances.

Mirage Gstaad will be at the Videmanette site until 2021. If you'd like to visit, be sure to pack some sensible shoes as it's a fifteen minute hike up there from the nearest train station.

Sources: Doug Aitken, Elevation 1049

View gallery - 17 images
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4 comments
MerlinGuy
Ah, look a cabin designed to make you feel you're in a deserted Abercrombie & Fitch mall location. Plus you don't have to worry about any of that passive solar heating the place up.
Gizmowiz
Oooh the opportunity for bad luck is so great with this home. Hopefully a skier won't ski into it and break a lot of mirrors and be stuck with bad luck for ages. The chances of that happening are greatly enhanced with the mirrors acting like an invisibility cloak so that skiers will not realize it's a mirror until it's too late.
Researcher
Looks amazing, but as suggested below it could be a reflective killer, unfortunately, for birds and other wildlife (especially in summer) as well as skiers
Buzzclick
I have used mirrors on outside walls before, and upon seeing this concept immediately thought of the potential for bird strikes, which is very uncool. In my case, I made sure that there was foliage close to the mirrors, and that was by no means a perfect solution but meant that the birds weren't flying fast enough to break their necks. Tinted mirrors also help. Positioning mirrors flat on a horizontal plane (like the ground) is very cool because you reflect the sky like water and the bird issue is non existent.