Danish studio ReVærk has completed House of Nature, a school building designed to promote learning about nature through its traditional timber structure and wooden shingles, which has been shortlisted in the civic building category of Dezeen Awards 2021.
The Aarhus-based practice designed the building to accommodate the teaching of Nature and Outdoor Life at the Silkeborg Folk High School, with the building itself conceived as a lesson in sustainable timber construction for its users.
The House of Nature has an all-timber structure
Framing views of an adjacent forest, the timber structure, acacia shingle cladding, Douglas fir interiors and wood fibre insulation were all part of a strategy to design a building "as purely based on wood as possible". "The brief for the new educational building was to create a space that exudes nature and creates a close connection to the surrounding forest," said the studio.
The school offers views of an adjacent forest
"The construction is inspired by the old Danish 'bullade' timber frame construction, dating back to the Viking age."
A cluster of four of these lightweight timber-framed forms make up the school building, connected internally but visually distinct from the outside, where they gently fan out along the edge of a curved, decked path.
House of Nature sits along a curved path
Presenting a blank elevation clad with distinctive acacia shingles on approach from the north, the building opens up to the fore...