Photography: Doublespace Photography
While beloved by members, the 46-year-old heavy timber and coreslab structure was showing its age: overcrowded lunchtime seating; poor flow between the change rooms and social spaces; a deafening après-ski experience; and no child-minding spaces were becoming taxing. To improve and expand the clubhouse, the design team followed a resolution of tying together old and new structures while capturing the importance of historic timber. New Y-columns reinterpret the existing heavy timbers and are CNC-milled to mimic the soft profiles discovered through the history of hand-carved wood skis. A new Douglas Fir acoustic ceiling runs through the project and aligns with the lower face of the existing timber frames, dramatically reducing decibel levels while allowing the new sprinkler system and lighting to be concealed, giving the clubhouse the feeling of a wooden tent. Reusing exterior timber meant a new slope-side façade, which replaced 40-year-old single-glazed windows with a timber-backed curtainwall, which now encapsulates the timber, protecting it from the elements.