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Alborz Mountains, Shemshak Mountains, Barin Ski Resort, Iran, boutique ski resort Iran, cave-like rooms, sustainable design Iran, RYRA Design Studio, boutique hotel melts into surroundings

The client asked RYRA Studios to provide a warm and cozy retreat for young people returning from their frigid outdoor adventures at the Shemshak ski resort in the Alborz Mountains. The architects told Inhabitat they didn’t want their response to be indifferent to the natural surroundings, but rather to embrace them.

Related: Iranian architect builds sustainable dome home from bamboo and dry rice plants

Alborz Mountains, Shemshak Mountains, Barin Ski Resort, Iran, boutique ski resort Iran, cave-like rooms, sustainable design Iran, RYRA Design Studio, boutique hotel melts into surroundings

“The Barin Ski resort picks up on the philosophy of designing buildings so that the form emulates the immediate environment in a fluid way,” they said, adding that it is designed to be “one with the snow-covered mountain, almost as if windswept onto the mountain side, like an iced rock formation.”

Alborz Mountains, Shemshak Mountains, Barin Ski Resort, Iran, boutique ski resort Iran, cave-like rooms, sustainable design Iran, RYRA Design Studio, boutique hotel melts into surroundings

The hotel comprises 67 individual rooms carved into the mountain like a cave. This cave-like sensibility is accentuated with the rooms’ dome shape. The architects say the continuation of this design approach inside both the rooms and corridors, combined with pebble shaped windows that provide views of the mountains, allows the “holistic” resort to complement, rather than detract from, its natural habitat.

+ RYRA Studio