NEXT Architects creates bat-friendly watchtower overlooking Dutch forest

[Celerity]

https://www.dezeen.com/2025/04/06/watchtower-einderheide-next-architects-netherlands/







Dutch studio NEXT Architects has completed Watchtower Einderheide, a bat-friendly wooden lookout in the Netherlands with a curved cut-out that reveals a spiral staircase. NEXT Architects, which has offices in Amsterdam and China, completed the tower as a lookout point for tourists on a network of cycling and walking trails in the Einderheide forest near the Belgium border.





The studio's ambition was to construct a 26 metre-tall tower after tests showed reaching that height would allow visitors to peek out over the treetops of the wooded area, known as the Kempen. The studio decided to incorporate habitats for tree-dwelling bats into the structure, which is located on a flight path for the winged mammals. "This tower is just as much for animals as it is for people, said NEXT Architects partner Michel Schreinemachers. "In addition to the view of the surroundings, the wooden lookout tower is equipped with summer and winter shelters for bats."







The structure is made of laminated Douglas fir columns and clad in thermally modified pine that protects the lookout from the weather. At its core is a steel spiral staircase that takes visitors up to three levels. The tower's simple form is broken up with voids that have been carved out of its facade and expose its construction. NEXT Architects created these with cut-outs with curved beams to provide different views out over the forest. Because of the poor accessibility of the site and the limited space between the trees, the tower was prefabricated in a workshop with the supporting structure and facade panels assembled on site.







The tower's stability comes from L-shaped supporting columns in each corner, and three wind trestles, two in the closed facades running from foundation to roof and one in the open facade. Developed for the project by ecologist Jeroen Mos, the bat roosts have been integrated into the tower and spaced out at heights of five, 10 and 15 meters, with bat boxes placed behind them to mimic tree hollows. The tower's rough preserved pine gives the bats good grip so they can land and crawl away. Underneath the tower, the tower's base is made of concrete and includes a bat cellar where animals can hide and hibernate in the colder winter months.

snip

[FalloutShelter]

1. This is very cool.

T