Artists Heather and Ivan Morison have unveiled Mother, a thatched hut offering sanctuary and solitude in a Cambridgeshire nature reserve.
Installed in the Wicken Fen Nature Reserve, Mother is a deceptively large sculpture, designed to look like the haystacks that were once found all over this part of England.

Slender openings reveal that is is actually a shelter, inviting those walking in the wild fenland landscape to stop for a moment of pause and reflection.
Heather and Ivan, who together lead Studio Morison, wanted to explore how the natural world might be used to improve people's mental health.

The pair were inspired by the book Nature Cure, in which author Richard Mabey writes about how walking and observing in the countryside helped him overcome depression. "The sculpture offers a space to reflect on troubling thoughts, as well as an opportunity to perhaps still the mind for a while by focusing on the simple material qualities of the work, and the changing nature of the landscape that surrounds it," said Ivan Morison.

The shape and proportions of the structure are based on a traditional style of hayrick with a conical top. Here, the sloping top forms a roof with a small oculus at its peak.
The artists built the circular frame for the structure using timber felled from their own forest in north Wales and milled in their workshop.

For the thatching, they enlisted a skilled local craftsman, whose first job as an apprentice was to thatch a hayrick in thi...