Photography by Adolf Bereuter courtesy of Bernd Riegger.
Call it library style. A small open-air hut built for a children’s outdoor education program has a facade of empty bookshelves, designed to provide both shelter and display space for treasures that young campers may find in the forest. Designed by Bernd Riegger Architektur and commissioned by Austrian nonprofit agency Waldeulen, the structure is delightful to adults as well as kids.
Sited in a forest in western Austria near the borders of Switzerland and Germany, the wooden hut “encourages playful learning” and provides shelter against inclement weather, say the architects.
The building’s framework is made of rough-sawn spruce planks and its peaked roof is covered in asphalt shingles.
“Display areas are used by the children to store and exhibit all the wonderful things they have found,” say the architects, “or as an insect hotel, or even as a place to leave food for the forest inhabitants.”
The hut’s open porch is sided in shelving.
Large windows give children views of what’s happening in the surrounding woods during a rainstorm.