Heron Pond Viewing Blind

In Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary there is such a clever structure hidden so beautifully in the nature reserve which allows you to watvh the birds without distrubing them at all! Designed and built by students from Sam Fox of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University for the Audbon Society and the US Army Corps of Engineers, The spring 2013 digital fabrication project led by Andrew Colopy and Robert Booth of Cobalt Office


The building sits at the south end of Heron Pond, and it is approached via a gravel road that snakes through some farmland. From a distance it looks like a pine cone or some other sort of 'natural' object sitting on the ground, but each step closer reveals the materiality of the construction.





What looks to be a fairly solid object is discovered to be made from thin sheets in brown, gray, blue and red that layer over each other like feathers on a bird. This is an appropriate technique for camouflaging the building into its context, "tricking" birds into not seeing the structure and therefore allowing people inside to watch the birds without fear of scaring them off.The side of the building on the approach from the small parking lot is primarily closed (views above and interior view below), with small cuts allowing natural light and ventilation









Up close the bird blind looks somewhat alien, but from a distance it nestles itself into its pond context