To following the desire for simplicity more than 100 million people travel to the Alps every year. Luxury is rarely expected in the mountains - mostly the accommodation presents itself as very functional.

Beside the mountain huts, many shelters and chalets in the Alps are a witness of a century-old culture and at the same time form an integral part of a functioning organisation to foster tourism.
Once considered obsolete and uneconomical and almost threatened with extinction they got a real boost with the advent of increased walking, climbing and hiking tourism. By catering and accommodation of these tourists as well as selling their own products to them the mountain farmers have achieved to build a new economical ressource for themselves. In addition to the positive impact on tourism and mountain agriculture a contribution is made towards the preservation of old traditions and the original landscape, which originally formed their culture.
Far more so than in the Alps the peasants with their animals roaming on mountainous pastures dominate the landscape of the Carpathians. The mountain farmers inhabit the different levels of the mountainous Alm mostly in a very traditional way.
And yet the Romanian mountain economy is currently facing problems similar to the alpine farming in the Alps in the 1960s.

Similarly as in the Alps, the promotion of sustainable mountain tourism could provide a perspective for many mountain villages here. A hybrid of Stine and a chalet, which has long been the norm in the Alps, would also be conceivable here.

This project shows a possible way in terms of functionality, simplicity and keeping the tradition which are the relevant factors for its design. An archaic building structure whose shape is determined by its purpose provides a simple but comfortable accommodation for the shepherds as well as for hikers.