Heron Pond Viewing Blind
John Hill
10. July 2014
Photos: John Hill/World-Architects
On vacation this week as part of an extended (U.S.) Independence Day, an architectural highlight was a bird blind built in the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary by students from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University.
The layered exterior cloaks the small structure so visitors can observe birds in the adjacent Heron Pond without disturbing them. From a distance – and perhaps from a bird's-eye view overhead – the building resembles a pinecone, a natural metaphor that may or may not be intentional. Regardless, the digital fabrication project (designed by the students but carried out with their professors from Cobalt Office) took an approach that has enough layering and complexity so it looks like it belongs – even if it looks somewhat alien to us humans.
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