Bird Hut

In a mountainous valley in British Columbia, Studio North's architects created this adorable 10 square meter "A" tent for campers and birds.

Bird Hut is located on a wooded slope in Windermere, a small village in western Canada. The pointed structure is raised from the ground by wooden stilts and rises to a height of 6 meters, allowing it to blend into the trees. Housing a space of just under 10 m2, the tree house is designed to house two people and 12 species of birds.

In addition to being a welcoming place where people can nest for the night, the whimsical and ornamental facade has twelve nesting boxes, each designed for local birds living in the surrounding mountains. The front elevation is clad in custom red cedar shingles, with several circular openings for birds. Cavities vary in size to accommodate a wide variety of birds.

The height of the holes responds to the different nesting habits of birds. Some prefer to be closer to the ground, while others look for high spaces in the trees. The materials, shape and orientation of the Bird Hut have been designed to provide nesting opportunities for as wide a variety of local birds as possible. The X-shaped stilts that hold the structure are made of sturdy pine logs. To make the platform and the lining of the hut, the team used boards recovered from an old structure. Polycarbonate sheets were used for the side walls of the A structure.