Believe it or not, this alpine hut was helicoptered into place and erected in just two days. Named Bivacco Claudio Brédy to honor the life of late mountaineer Claudio Brédy, the tiny cabin opened in 2021 and is one of more than twenty alpine huts built in the Italian alps in recent years. Many bivacci memorialize people who have died in the surrounding peaks, and building this hut was Claudio’s father’s idea. Several of Claudio’s friends work in architecture-related fields, and for the project, the Brédy family tapped them for a design competition. The contest was structured as a class on designing for the alpine zone, and the concept ultimately chosen was the work of a team of three: Skye Sturm, Chiara Tessarollo, and Facundo Arboit of bcw_collective. For Sturm, the 129-square-foot building conveys “the feeling of being fully immersed in the environment and yet protected and safe and warm and comfortable,” as she puts it. Standing on a ridge at the head of a valley, the hut rises away...