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NZ Backcountry Hut

ProMax

The New Zealand Forest Service built its deer-culling huts to a parts list: the S70 six-bunk, the S81 four-bunk, the S86 bivvy, the first S70 raised at Cow Creek in 1960. Galvanised corrugate, a gable, six bunks, no lining and no power.

They were painted survival orange so a party could find them against snow and cloud. The colour only works because of what surrounds it — the near-black green of wet beech. That relationship is the whole design: a small bright rectangle, a very large dark bush, and a hut book in biro inside.

Learn more about the NZ Backcountry Hut style

  • OriginNew Zealand backcountry — Tararua, Kaweka and Southern Alps beech and tussock country
  • Period1950s–1960s NZ Forest Service hut programme; DOC custodianship 1987–present
  • DesignerNew Zealand Forest Service · Department of Conservation · Resene · Dulux
  • Movementsutilitarian government field architecture · standardised prefab huts · safety-visibility colour policy

Web examples

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Slide examples

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