Chirping birds, bubbling brooks, buzzing insects, croaking frogs – and of course, the wind moving the trees. These are the beautiful and relaxing sounds you normally encounter in the woods. But how about amplifying them? Would that be even more relaxing? Students at the Estonian Academy of Arts decided to find out.

Apparently, they first built a pair of giant earphones, aka “The Forestphone” in Baumkronenweg Park, Kopfing, Austria, to create, as they put it, a place for resting, healing and contemplation. The installation proved that amplifying the ambient hums of the forest can indeed focus your attention and heighten the experience. Just what else would you need after a hard week’s work?

In a later project, they installed 10-foot-wide wooden megaphones in Pähni Nature Centre, Võrumaa, Estonia, to function in the same way: as sensory-depravation chambers where one sense is removed and the others become stronger. But instead of working as giant headphones, as in the previous project, these forest megaphones direct sound to the center of a clearing. And if you stand inside one, you get close and personal with nature’s acoustics.

In addition to their amazing aural effect, the Forest Megaphones offer a shelter for hikers to take a rest and enjoy the scenery. And, if that wasn’t enough, they are also pieces of visual art that fall into the great tradition of architectural follies (buildings that were constructed primarily for decoration, but through their appearance suggest some other purpose, or have such an extravagant appearance that they transcend the range of usual garden buildings).

The fact that 51% of Estonia is covered with forests seems to explain why this great idea came from Estonians. According to Estonian semiotician and popular author Valdur Mikita – who has written at length about the ways Estonian culture is intertwined and imbued with forests – this architectural design helps to notice the richness of sound in forests as well as the silence.

“It’s a place to listen, to browse the audible book of nature – there hasn’t really been a place like that in Estonia before.”