Rusted Trail Lodge

Imagine the virgin nature of Alaska with its stately pine forests, magnificent mountains and sweeping pure rivers and creeks. The northernmost state of the USA is beautiful both from the height of the flight of the eagle and in the human`s eyes.  Alaska brings everything human needs to unwind from frail city civilization. Here you can relax truly and contact with eternal life-being. But preserving what nature created is also our duty. Not far from Fairbanks, in the heart of mainland Alaska, we made a place where human has an opportunity to disconnect from vanity but not to forget about habitual comfort. Made from sustainable materials and using natural-based construction techniques, combined with a great location, our lodge gives you anything you need. Walking through the forest, you’ll come out to a vast meadow with field herbs and modest architecture buildings designed for you with your loved one or family.

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Rusted Trail Lodge is designed to compose a comfortable environment for the modern human. The site divides into three zones: avanzone with parking, customer zone and living zone. The whole territory is connected by sidewalks and car passages and is comfortable for walking. Human-scaled buildings with triangle-shaped roofs have wooden planks outer finishing and fit good on the site ground. Planted pine and other coniferous trees create enough shadow and fresh, good-for-breathing air. The lodge is surrounded by spruce wood and a meadow with shrubs. There are plenty of natural beauties and places for hiking around. We hope that our camp will help to relax truly and connect with essential.

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The goal of the main service building was to divide space into two zones: public in front of it and nonpublic for customers behind it. This division will ensure cosiness & comfort. Inclusive planning of building with reception, food court, restrooms, entertaining space etc., is designed to maximize the convenience of living in the wildlands of Alaska.

The perforated frontage wall of the building is conditioned by the form of this building and its Northern

orientation and has two functions:

1. dividing the whole area into public & nonpublic zones;

2. aesthetic function;

This perforated frontage is made from corten steel which rusts quickly and doesn’t lose its strength. The concept of using such a non-traditional material was to remind people that life isn’t infinite and time runs faster than you think. Rusted steel also merges well with the surrounding forest.

The concept of all-inclusive planning is called up to satisfy all the needs of every type of customer. So everyone will feel themselves just like in their homes.

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There are two types of cottages in the lodge. The one-story cabin is estimated for a couple. It consists of a hallway with a kitchenette, living room, bedroom and a bathroom with a restroom. The two-story cottage is designed for a family of four people with an opportunity to create additional sleeping places. It contains a hallway, bathroom and toilet, kitchenette and living space on the first floor and master bedroom with attached bathroom and children`s bedroom with a bunk bed on the second floor. Cabins have restrained design, are spacious and flooded with light from big panoramic windows in the walls and sloping roofs. The warmness of the fireplace with natural materials used in the interior design and calming scenery outside creates a great atmosphere to forget about urban bustle.

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In our project, we wanted to withdraw from modern and widespread templates of house construction. So we invented a new construction system using offbeat materials and structures.

To make construction as ecological as possible, we minimize the volume of used concrete. It has been reached by inventing a new basement construction. We used a drilling field with a rubble concrete slab that replaces the common-used band concrete basement.

The drilling field is connected with a post-beam system of the frame in the wall structure. The frame consists of horizontal and vertical pine beams. This material is much more sustainable than bricks or concrete blocks and is relevant for Alaska. Space between beams and stands is filled out of adobe bricks. Adobe is traditional southern European and Middle Eastern material that was widely used, e.g. in the south part of Ukraine, during all our history. Still, now this traditional material

is predominantly forgotten. Adobe bricks are made from clay and straw. It provides good thermal conductivity, and thanks to this, the inner space of the building is breezy in summer and warm enough in winter.

The floor construction is fully vented because of air spaces between pine beams at the bottom of the floor base. This type of construction holds warm inside the building.

The roof frame is made of pine beams and rafters coated with boards and isolation material — turf layer with grass used as roofing. Turf assures a high level of water retention and derivation.

By using these materials and constructions, we reached sustainability in an eco-aware way and reached a goal of creating a net-zero structure for living.