The Outward Bound cabins' steel frames lift the structures above a three-foot snowpack while supporting corrugated-steel "snow roofs."
Project Colorado Outward Bound Cabins Designer Colorado Building WorkshopSleeping in threadbare shelters and truck beds, the students and teachers of the Colorado Outward Bound School endured the intrusion of the elements during their wilderness trips. To solve the problem, the school commissioned the University of Colorado Denver's design-build program to erect 14 cabins on challenging terrain—a hillside at 10,200 feet above sea level—with minimal environmental impact. The team devised prefabricated structures to reduce time on site while ensuring quality of the build. Each cabin sleeps two to three and is clad in durable and low-maintenance hot-rolled steel. Their dimensional lumber structures and interior birch plywood built-ins were crafted in controlled conditions, then flat-placked to the site, where assembly lasted only three weeks.
