{"id":592244,"date":"2023-09-22T19:05:38","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T16:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/this-tiny-b-c-hut-is-a-birdhouse-for-humans\/"},"modified":"2023-09-22T19:05:38","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T16:05:38","slug":"this-tiny-b-c-hut-is-a-birdhouse-for-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/this-tiny-b-c-hut-is-a-birdhouse-for-humans\/","title":{"rendered":"#This tiny B.C. hut is a birdhouse for humans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nHow one Calgary architect fulfilled his longtime dream to live among the birds\u00a0\n<\/div>\n
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(Photography by Hayden Pattullo, Studio North)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Every summer when Mark Erickson was growing up<\/span>, his family would drive three hours west of their home in Calgary through the mountainous wilderness of Banff to visit their spartan two-bedroom cottage in Windermere, B.C. The remote cabin is where he learned to fish, build tree forts in the forest, and most importantly, birdwatch. Erickson recalls spending hours sitting with his late grandfather on the front porch, learning how to identify birds <\/span>by their calls. \u201cAs a kid I had all these fantasies about what it would be like to fly,\u201d he says. To this day, he continues birding with his mother. \u201cWe\u2019ll still discover birds we haven\u2019t seen out there before<\/span>, which is always pretty exciting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Two decades on, Erickson\u2019s avian fascination is as strong as ever\u2014and, in 2016, he began to dream of a way to get closer to the<\/span> bird\u00a0world. Erickson, who\u2019s the principal architect of the firm Studio North in Calgary, designed a small space <\/span>near the family cabin where he could sleep amid the canopy of the trees. The Bird Hut, completed in 2017, is a whimsical, human-scale birdhouse resting on wooden stilts 100 feet off the ground. (To reach the deck, he has to travel<\/a> up an elevated stone path on a hill.)<\/span><\/p>\n

At only 100 square feet, the hut has barely enough room to fit a king-sized mattress on the floor. However, the small footprint was strategic: any structure 100 square feet or under doesn\u2019t require a building permit, which gave Erickson free rein to create a truly madcap, experimental structure.<\/span><\/p>\n

The entire structure only cost $3,000. This is because Erickson repurposed materials from previous builds: t<\/span>he hut sits on a deck<\/span> platform made from boards taken from the old deck on the main cabin<\/span>, which Erickson and his dad rebuilt in 2016. The stilts are lodgepole pine trunks Erickson scavenged from nearby Crown land after a forest fire ripped through. The only materials he bought new were the polycarbonate roof and cedar shingles decorating the facade. He built the entire hut by hand, working every weekend over the course of two months.<\/span><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s just 150 feet away from his family\u2019s cabin, the Bird Hut seems to exist in its own tranquil universe. It rests on a pair of X-shaped stilts, which give it a slight wobble that makes you feel like you\u2019re walking onto a branch. \u201cWhen you\u2019re laying down, it feels like being rocked in a cradle,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s probably as close as you can get to being a bird without being a bird.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The tree canopy is visible through the structure\u2019s transparent polycarbonate roof. \u201cWhen the leaves are rustling, there\u2019s this pleasant dapp<\/a>ling of shadows. You\u2019re looking up at a colourful, moving mosaic,\u201d he says. Erickson sleeps there, with his wife and two children\u2014ages three and a half and one\u2014for approximately three weeks out of the year. T<\/span>hey have to visit the main cabin for the bathroom and running water, but\u00a0he says it is more than worth the hassle to experience the magical feeling of sleeping among the trees. \u201cYou\u2019re just kind of floating in space, which inevitably has an effect on your dreams,\u201d he says.<\/span>
\n\"\"In addition to being a birdhouse for humans, the hut has several nesting boxes intended for feathered creatures, hidden within the structure\u2019s scalloped facade. The birdhouses are all different sizes to attract a variety of species. Songbirds prefer a smaller, cozier space<\/span>, while larger birds like the pileated woodpecker requires a bit more room. Each box has a hinge on top<\/span>, so Erickson and his family can peek inside to spy on the birds when they\u2019re inside the hutch.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Bird Hut was first built, it was the new kid on the block, and the birds were all super curious. I would sit there over the course of the day and see all sorts of birds going in, checking it out. I saw a pileated woodpecker go into the upper box and thought, \u2018Wow, I designed that for him and it<\/span>\u2019s the one he chose to go see.\u2019 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lately, some unusual inhabitants have taken up residence in the boxes: flying squirrels. The creatures are nocturnal, but any time Erickson sleeps out in the hut, he can hear them scratching at night. \u201cSometimes we\u2019ll peek in and get to see them sleeping there during the day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Erickson wishes more birds <\/span>would make the Bird Hut their home\u2014so far its primary inhabitants are the flying squirrels\u2014and the boxes are removable so he can continue to experiment with creating other spaces, figuring out what works and what doesn\u2019t. Every year, before closing up the cabin for the winter, Erickson fills each box with suet and birdseed in the hope it will entice more feathered friends to build a dwelling in the hut. \u201cHopefully, with time, it\u2019ll be more and more inhabited by all the creatures of the forest,\u201d he says. But in the end, it doesn\u2019t matter who ends up using the boxes. \u201cThe cabin belongs to the wilderness more than it belongs to us,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I get to look in the boxes and see what\u2019s been going on, it\u2019s like visiting a friend and catching up. I get to discover something new every time I visit it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just really grown into the site. It feels like it belongs there now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n