Wild Hut 19

Location:

Dawsholm Park, Glasgow

Some weeks previously I had arranged to collaborate with a Glasgow-based design consultancy called Giraffe Architecture. Raymond from Giraffe shares my passion for sustainable design and is also quite partial to an outdoor-adventure on occasion which was more than handy. After various emails we had decided to build something that would really test our design skills and explore a more ‘engineered’ solution. So in order to push ourselves we decided to build a mathematically complex geodesic dome…from wobbly twigs.

Having in the past made various shelters that were either too narrow or too short, I was worried that this more precise geometric puzzle would be impossible to achieve on a cold, dark evening with some rickety branches. It didn’t help that some of the worst snow storms this year had hit Glasgow on the very day of the build. It doesn’t surprise me.

Travelling through the west end of Glasgow we arrived at the gates of Dawsholm Waste Transfer and Recycling Facility (or ‘the dump’ for short) in the early evening. The recycling plant has a surreal high-rise metal shed on the fringe of a small woodland park. This hilltop forest offers great views south over Glasgow’s west-end but is fairly exposed to the bitter east-wind and blustery snow showers which now fell.

The Build:

We gathered some sticks and walked along the long approach path leading to the woods. Dog-walkers were out in force utilising what was left of the diminishing daylight. From a distance we may have looked like park rangers clearing up the fallen branches from the path. This was hopeful at best. It was more likely they noticed the serious conviction written across our faces suggesting that we were working towards something bigger, more epic, but ultimately less useful than path-clearing. We walked past with our heads down, avoiding awkward questions and eye contact.

Tall trees had been knocked down by the wind in an elemental game of woodland dominos. Tipped trunks were precariously resting against adjacent trees, interlocked at high level. Many trees lay motionless on the forest floor, revealing a tiny pond below their upturned roods. We stashed our rucksacks deep in the branches of a fallen conifer tree and proceeded to find yet more sticks.

Eventually, we had gathered enough sticks for the main pentagonal components and decided to take a quick break for a cold dinner. Ray lifted his sandwich to find a mouse had nibbled a hole in the corner of the packet. Slightly concerned I hung our main food bag from a branch but was ultimately pleased to find these tiny creatures harbouring in the security of this fallen forest giant.

We got back to work arranging the pentagons which would form the basis for the hut. We required 5 large identical pentagons for this build. The pentagons were made from an inner and outer frame, inside which we trapped some fir branches from the adjacent fallen tree. They took around 45 mins each to assemble and we had the feeling that this adventure might be a late one.

I nipped back over to the food bag when a little golden mouse (possibly a wood or harvest mouse) sprung out the bag and disappeared along the branches. I almost jumped out of my freezing skin and was of the opinion I could probably outrun Raymond if the mouse decided to attack. It was actually great to see a little woodland creature so close-up, right in the heart of the city. They are also slightly cuter than the usual fat rats I encounter on the pavements outside shops.

A fox danced through the woods like a drugged gypsy, darting in various directions as the snowfall became more concentrated. It didn’t stay for long and headed towards the recycling centre for supper, or indeed to recycle. We completed the 5 pentagon sandwiches and had them arranged upright by midnight. It was freezing cold so we could never stop for very long without our fingers becoming increasingly numb.

A couple of hours later we had arranged the roof and tiled it with the conifer branches from the adjacent deadwood tree. The hut looked surprisingly like a geodesic dome. I was surprised at how neat and structurally capable the form became. The rigid dome flexed and compressed to hold each of its components in place. The snowfall now seemed fairly heavy and I was sure that the hut would soon resemble an igloo rather than a finely panelised dome.

Roughing it:

We passed our gear through the small triangular door and rolled out our sleeping mats. Things weren’t much warmer in our sleeping bags as temperatures on the hill plummeted to around -7. Not ideal, although I learnt a good trick that by placing my hands deep into my pockets I was able to sleep without shivering. I wrapped a scarf around my face as tiny flakes of snow drifted through similarly tiny gaps in the structure. The hut became a great wind-break and we were more than pleased with this minor sheltering victory.

We chatted until late and fell asleep to the sounds of agitated trees moaning in the wind with old limbs creaking. A dog barking right outside the hut signalled morning and was a great natural alarm (reminiscent of clockwork, much like their toilet habits). We packed quickly as the morning air was much colder than the previous night, partnered by a fierce wind.

We skipped breakfast and made our way through the arterial maze of forest trails until we aligned once again with the main dump access road. The snow was still falling heavily and after a short commute I was back home and beginning to warm up slightly.

I decided to eat the croissant I had bought for our breakfast, but on further inspection the bag was chewed open and the croissant was hollowed out by that stealthy little mouse earlier. It’s lucky the rodent had retired as it may have well found itself on the menu after munching our breakfast!

Wild Hut 16

Location:
Pacific Quay, Glasgow

I noticed blue lights flashing and through the rain I could see an ambulance parked awkwardly in the road and a man being held by the throat against the building opposite. A typical Saturday evening in Glasgow I thought! The rain was fairly heavy and had been pouring all day. I decided this was a perfect night for a wild hut adventure.

I had noticed that building work had begun on my favourite little plot of land on the Clyde-side. 25 years of woods and wildlife had been scraped clean in less than a day, revealing old cobbled roads and retaining walls. The new Masterplan for this area includes strategic routes, hotels and office buildings (View part of the design). The thing that struck me was the maturity of the trees that were being cleared. For an inner-city site it looked like commercial forestry at work, with trailers full of heavy timber ready for the sawmill.



I followed a familiar little trail through the undergrowth until I arrived at the edge of the destruction. I remember following a little fox along this wooded trail with the surrounding branches full of screeching Magpies and Wood Pigeons. The Grey Herons who once stood like concrete statues in the tall reeds will never return. It looked like a tsunami aftermath – just thick mud and a tangle of broken trees.

I don’t like to get sentimental over one patch of scrub-land but I think urban density needs to be tempered with negative space - areas for wild resurgence. On the plus side, there was enough chopped materials here for all 100 huts so I wasn’t complaining for long.

The Build:
I decided to build quite an elegant triangular form. It consisted of two simple A-frame structures, which supported a triangular sleeping platform with roof above. Both the sleeping platform and roof tapered back to a single point. This reduced the material requirement and made it quite a quick and efficient build.

I constructed two free standing A-frames and strung the bed and roof structure together in super-quick time. I was slowed down considerably though as groups of screaming youths passed on the road above every few minutes. I felt really exposed with the lack of ground cover and crouched down behind stacks of timber like an animal shunning human contact.

The rain hadn’t stopped all night and it would be safe to say I was pretty wet. I was knee deep in mud through much of the foraging and could feel my face was caked in it too. It felt a bit like commando camouflage but I knew I would feel stupid walking home. I had the look of someone who had attempted to drink a puddle.

I laddered the roof with straight lengths of wood, using gravity to hold them in place. I then used upturned moss and turf to form a skin over the roof timbers and hold them in place. This ‘wattle and dob’ style roofing was quick and extremely effective. I built a short windbreak with some broken evergreen branches and the full hut was complete in only 3.5 hours.

Roughing it:
The rain hadn’t stopped all night and I pulled off my squelching wellies and wriggled onto the sleeping platform. It was a good test for this little hut as I’m sure even my tent would have packed in during such a heavy and constant downpour.

I put on a hat and snuggled down into the sleeping bag feeling the odd drip find its way through the layers of debris. The wind seemed to change direction from west to north-west, but the windbreak was well positioned around my head. I wondered how I would fall asleep – I was wide awake and there is a row of glowing flats on the road above. Taxi’s sped past every few minutes and people laughed in the rain on their drunken walk home from town.

Before long I was fast asleep and only woke to the sounds of birds chirping the following morning. I opened my eyes to see a black shape darting around the mud below the hut. It was still dark and I was sure it was a rat. It moved again and to my relief it was a blackbird searching for the early worm. It was odd to see bird-life in the darkness. It was almost 7am and the sun had not yet risen.

I watched the blackbird dart around the ground instinctively and wondered if it was following the same route it had done for years through the old forest? I wondered if by studying the bird’s movements you could build up a picture of how the forest was arranged before it was destroyed a few days earlier. I wondered if the residual mental maps of these birds could reveal the historic forest landscape through their confused movements, like a ghost or x-ray. Animals are highly adaptable I thought. Which is lucky as their eviction notice came in the form of a chainsaw.

It was soon light and as I walked home I felt like a travelling mud-wrestler. I passed about 10 people who looked at me with some concern. I checked my reflection in a car window and realised that my head looked like a chocolate truffle with bed-hair. I cleaned my wellies in a puddle and felt a lot better.

Wild Hut 10

Location:

Govan, Glasgow South-Side

I decided to spend my next hutting adventure with my daughter Katie who is 6. If it takes around 5 hours to build a hut, I was fairly sure she would be bored and cold after 1 – especially on these dark winter evenings. It would also be an organisational struggle to get her home, showered and ready in time for school the next morning.

So I decided to venture out the evening before in an effort to prepare the materials and complete the main structural work. I donned my wellies and wandered out through a quiet industrial estate, on-route to the River Clyde like an urban farmer. As I approached a redundant patch of land on the river bank, I noticed a fox racing past at speed. It was bounding high through the tall grass like a drugged kangaroo. I thought it must have been confronted by a passing dog walker which sent him racing for his life through the undergrowth.

The Build:

The back corner of the waste-ground had a vast pile of cut stone – part of the old quay wall and cobbled riverbank. Without haste I began the heavy work of building the base-wall. I decided the hut should have a softer, more organic feel so arranged the wall in the shape of a horse-shoe, 7 courses high and about the size of a double bed. I knew that high walls need cross-bracing so built an inner and outer leaf, using some lager blocks to brace between them.

As I lifted a stone block a large frog jumped out from between my legs. In the darkness I just noticed a fast, darting movement and jumped backwards like a big girl. In fairness though, he was a frighteningly big frog, darting around in the darkness with threatening intent…big eyes etc.

On one hand…it seemed like a sensible and secure place for a frog to hide, but on the other hand frogs are so soft and delicate in contrast to these sharp heavy blocks. I was fairly sure that at one stage I was going to accidently squish it…so picked it up and placed it well out of harms way. No sooner had I returned than another big frog was flopping around across the stones. Comically - it leaped headlong into a stone block and halted in a daze (it was either running for its life or was as blind as a bat). I picked up this kamikaze-Kermit and popped it beside his girlfriend who could easily have been his dad for all I knew. I left them with strict instructions that I didn’t want to see any tadpoles out of season…

I came back the following evening with my daughter Katie to complete the roof part of the hut. She got back from school and was fairly excited to be heading out into the cold night for an adventure! We gathered sticks and soon arranged a ladder frame roof-structure across the top of the base-wall. We then added a thick layer of twigs at which point I decided to take her home for some supper and help her with her homework…which I had forgotten about...eek.

We came back out with 3 plastic bags and gathered up bundles of golden leaves which would give the roof a great waterproofing layer. We found 2 large sticks and propped the roof up at the front in order to achieve more head room and water run-off. I liked the flexible nature of a roof that could lift or drop depending on the weather or usage.

Roughing it:

We spread our gathered leaves across the roof and pushed them flat. Katie seemed fairly excited at the prospect of spending a night in the wilds of Glasgow, although it was hard to see her expression from the dim light of her Nintendo DS…We were soon snuggled up under layers of sleeping bags with the buzz of a nearby lamp post keeping us company.

The odd firework pierced the calm night as I drifted in and out of sleep. Katie fell asleep as soon as she felt the warmth of her sleeping bag. After only a short time I woke in absolute horror at the sound of someone whistling directly outside the hut. It was a sinister whistling sound as if someone was signalling to someone, but quiet as if they were really close. I lay fairly motionless for around 20 seconds hoping that the hut wall wouldn’t suddenly be kicked down on top of us.

To my relief and embarrassment, I had only days before received a new mobile phone, which has a SMS text notification sound of someone whistling! I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the sound now. I soon fell asleep to the further sounds of Katie snoring and the continual buzz of electricity. We woke dry and warm at 7am and headed home to get cleaned up for school and a days work.

Katie was asked to stand up in class today and tell the other kids about sleeping out in a wild hut in the middle of Glasgow. I’m only glad she was talking to kids and not the social services…

Wild Hut 9

Location:
Pacific Quay, Govan, Glasgow



M-frame Hut

I always thought ripping a toe nail off would be a fairly negative experience and indeed it was. I was heartily pulling on my woolly socks in a rather brisk manner when I felt the toenail catch on the inside and felt subsequent blood. I had previously bruised this toe nail during a long distance hike through the Highlands but hadn’t expected to part company with it so soon. It detached from one side and was swinging rather freely. I tried to pull it off but it was still organically deep-rooted on one side. I managed to stop the bleeding, Sellotaped the nail down onto the nail-bed and popped on my wellies. I wasn’t going to let this minor inconvenience disrupt my enjoyment of the icy-cold rain and wind waiting for me outside!

I walked through the downpour to the Media District on Glasgow’s River Clyde where there is a large expanse of overgrown wasteland yet to be developed on its south bank. After passing a stream of office workers who were leaving for the night I made my way over to the darkest corner of the quay. The only good thing about torrential rain I discovered is that it makes for fewer awkward conversations as I’m usually the only person mindless enough to be wondering around in it. As darkness fell I noticed a huge pile of pruned branches which had been discarded over the fence from the neighbouring residential development. I decided to make the hut entirely out of this rotting pile of brown leaves, twigs and cut branches.

The Build:

As I was frequenting the newly branded “Media” District (home to BBC Scotland HQ, STV, rats and seagulls amongst others) I decided to build an “M” shape hut structure. I arranged some branches on the ground in two triangular forms and bound them tightly together. Within each triangle I placed further bracing which formed the “M” shape. It also gives the sleeping platform some mid-way support which is ideal as I usually fall right through the bed each time like a comedy sketch show.



I stripped the twigs from various branches to form cross bracing members which allowed the structure to be free-standing. I then lashed some further branches along the length of the roof like a large ladder-frame. All the discarded brown leaves and twigs were then used to tile to roof (much like a traditional debris shelter).

This was a particularly quick process and the roof was water-tight in around half an hour. One thing that wasn’t water tight was my wellies! The continual rain had streamed down my trousers creating vast cold reservoirs in each foot. I took them off and poured out the contents. It was a delicate business putting them back on though as the sticky-tape had become wobbly...much like my toe nail.

I just had the bed platform to create and set about finding springy bedding material. As I pulled hard on a branch I felt something sharp cut deep into the top of my index finger. The blood quickly mixed with the rain and ran down my hand for the next hour. The bleeding wouldn’t stop as the rain continually diluted the open wound. I started to wonder if I should start another project called “100 different ways to hurt yourself in the dark”. It might also be an slightly easier project! The hut was complete in around 3.5 hours, my quickest hut yet.

Roughing it:

I pulled my sleeping bag out and rolled it across the bed platform. It was obvious that winter would soon be on us and the summer had passed as quickly as it had arrived. It felt fairly cold although reasonable, the weather forecast suggested there would be lows of 8 degrees. I put my full weight on the sleeping platform and for the first time ever – no cracking, nothing breaking...all quiet below! The structure seemed to tighten under the weight and remained firm. I squirmed into my sleeping bag and looked out across the water as the bright lights on the BBC HQ performed a colour-changing sequence.

The hut’s roof material was also a minor success as the rain seemed unable to penetrate the dense canopy of dead leaf-litter. The rain stopped in the night and the temperature dropped. I watched people passing close by, and ambulances screeching past a lot more than usual. I thought it must be an strategic “arterial route” they use to-and-from the Southern General Hospital. Luckily that was my last boring thought for the evening and I fell asleep fairly quickly. I set my work alarm for half 7 and awoke to a still-calm morning. I gathered my things and made my way back through some deep puddles along the quay wall. Back home I used some “second-skin” liquid bandage for my cut finger which stung much like the original accident itself! Every time I return from a night of building huts my brain always feels refreshed, as if washed clean by the cool rain.