The Butterfly Hide

Bailey’s Court School

School design workshops were held with the children of Bailey’s Court junior School in Bristol following the sad death of a former pupil from leucaemia. The school along with the family wanted his memory to inform, in a positive way, a new project in the school grounds. His passion was butterflies and the school setting was perfect for a brief devoted to watching them in the wild. The design development of the hide came out of a number of studio workshops with the school children building models and testing real ideas in situ on site. Once a design was agreed with the school the children were then involved in the construction of the hide on site. The hide is just six square meters internally and constructed from locally sourced timber. A skewed treated softwood frame sits on simple concrete pad foundations with a skin of Larch wrapping the interior space and filtering light. Since its completion in July 2011, the hide has been used by the children for a number of activities including maths and other outdoor class lessons.