The occupiable bird watching wall blocks the western sun, allowing west-facing glass walls to view the parallel-running water channel.
Inspired by harsh Texas summers, the bird observatory celebrates water collection, thermal massing, and cohesion with the landscape. At the human scale, carved volumes create unexpected and useful spaces. The long, thin building’s perpendicular orientation to the site slope puts deliberate emphasis on the birdwatcher’s descent from the heat of the empty field above to the cool edge of the forest below. This solemn pilgrimage into the bird-filled woods is accompanied by a water channel that runs along the long facade so that the sound of trickling water is celebrated on the anticipated occasion of rain.
Duration: Five weeks | Spring 2010 | Professor Judy Birdsong