Text description provided by the architects. Next to Europe’s second longest river, The Danube, in between reed and hovering trees, you’ll enter a curved wooden room facing the horizon, just big enough for you and your kids to grab a lunch while looking at the birds nesting in the river. The project is a result of a design-built workshop as a collaboration between Bergen School of Architecture(BAS) and Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava(STUBA).
BAS has a long tradition of teaching architecture through practical work. 1:1 sketching is an important way to both solve issues and recognising new solutions, getting an understanding of dimension and scale. During the spring semester 2016, 10 students from BAS and 15 students from STUBA completed the construction with financial support from EEA Grants and the state budget of the Slovak Republic from the EEA Scholarship Program Slovakia.
Duna is placed at Hrušovská zdž 18 kilometers outside of Bratislava. The site is known for its vast birdlife during the winter season and during the summer season people use the area as a public park. Along the site runs a paved bike road, it stretches through Slovakia, Austria and further into Germany. Last year almost 40.000 bikers biked the famous stretch.
The construction was built to be as subtle to the consisting site as possible. The foundation consist of 15 large scale earth screws, which are easily removed manually if necessary. The structure is made out of 95 percent wood. Consisting of 5 CNC-cut plywood beams stretching 12 meters in total length. Both the interior and exterior cladding is made out flexible wooden boards from local Slovakian pine. The cladding is placed in layers to provide sufficient strength.
The site is the most important wintering place for some species of waterbirds in Europe. If the winter is cold enough, more than 100 000 birds can be encountered within this area and more than 115 species of birds are registered. As a result, this site is a part of a protected area for bird species. Species commonly seen during the winter season is tufted ducks, Pochards, Goldeneyes, the Smew and rather rare species such as the Pygmy cormorants and the magnificent White-tailed eagles.
During migration (spring migration from February till May and autumn migration from August till November) various species such as mute swans, common Pochards, tufted ducks can be spotted here. Almost all the types of the Anatidae family(including ducks, geese and swans) is seen at the site. If you're lucky you'll might see more rare species(Caspian terns or Ospreys). During the nesting period the rare Mediterranean gulls are to be found as well as the blackheaded gulls. In summer, the turquoise common kingfisher can be seen flying over the water surface. Information and drawings about the different bird species is hung up in the inner room, spreading information about the existing bird activities happening on the site.
