Chalet Architecture

A chalet is a type of timber house native to the Alpine regions of Europe, particularly the Arpitan speaking parts of Switzerland and the French Savoy. It is built of wood with a heavy, gently sloping roof and wide, well supported eaves set at right angles to the front of the house, a form suited to shedding snow and sheltering the walls below. The building type began as the seasonal dwelling of Alpine herders and dairy farmers, often set partly into the ground for insulation, before becoming a year round residence and later a widely copied vacation house form outside the Alps. One of the largest surviving historic examples, the Grand Chalet, was built between 1752 and 1756.