Interior architecture students capture the sound of the Estonian forests
Milan Design Week has come to an end but we want to remain on the design topic with a very interesting project carried out by interior architecture students at the Estonian Academy of Arts , who thought it was about time we stated listening to nature.
Based on an idea by student Birgit Õigus, assisted by the other students on his course, three enormous wooden megaphones were built, each with a diameter of 3 metres.
These structures were immersed in nature within the Võru County Forest in Estonia. Hannes Praks, the course advisor and head of Interior Architecture at the Estonian Academy of Arts, explained that they were positioned at specific distances and angles so that sound from the three directions would create a unique surround sound effect at the centre of the installation.
Forests are an ideal location to enjoy what is apparently silence, a return to the pleasant background noise of nature.
Praks says of the project’s remote location, “The farther we get from the intense vibration of the capital, the better we are able to sense the low-frequency vibration of nature.”
Spoken like an architect who is a poet at heart. This is certainly a fact that cannot be ignored in a country like Estonia, where 51% of the land is covered by woods or forests.
So what are these giant megaphones really for?
The idea was to create an environment that would amplify every vibration and every sound wave from the nature surrounding the installation. The megaphones are used to capture the essence of the forest and allow people to really experience it. They are a unique opportunity to experiment with the encounter of a contemporary architectural space and wild nature.
Access is open to anybody wishing to shelter inside, the megaphones were designed to allow local travellers, tourists and anybody simply curious to immerse themselves in nature and stop off in the forest to read, relax, perform with music or perhaps just enjoy the sound identity of nature.
IMAGE CREDIT: TÕNU TUNNEL
