This ambulance station in the Dutch town of Zeist features a curved wooden framework and sloping walls covered with climbing plants to help it blend into its woodland setting (+ slideshow).
Utrecht studio Architectenforum designed the ambulance station for a site on the edge of the town, which is adjacent to a hospital and flanked on its other sides by a forest.

The brief was for a building with a low carbon footprint, which makes use of renewable materials to complement its natural context.
As the ambulance station is not used by patients or the public, its street-facing elevation features a solid sloping surface that curves up and over the building's roof.

"Because the building faces the road to the entrance of the nearby hospital, we decided to design a simple but interesting gesture," said Architectenforum.
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"There is no main facade, instead green sloping walls rise from the ground and transform into the curved line of the roof, blending in with the surrounding trees and the edge of the woodlands."

The surfaces are covered in a metal mesh, supporting fast-growing climbing plants including common ivy that will eventually create the impression of the building merging with the surrounding greenery.
Vertical wooden boards clad the remaining facades, offering a further natural detail that emphasises the project's sustainable credentials.

The wooded s...