- Just over three hours from Estonia's capital,
deep in a forest near the borders of Latvia and Russia
something sits listening.
I'm Bridget Barbara reporting for Atlas Obscura.
And today we're venturing deep into an Estonian forest
to listen to nature in a very unusual way.
(slow music)
About half of Estonia is completely covered in forests,
leading to the country having some
of the cleanest air in the world.
Estonia is one of a handful of countries
to exercise Everyman's Right,
which is the collective right to access
just about any natural area you want at no cost.
As long as it's for leisure activities
like fishing or camping or even picking berries,
the forest here is yours to explore.
The value of their abundant natural resource
can be seen across Estonian history.
It inspired much of their folklore
and continues to inspire in the arts.
We're in the village, we just went to the nature center
and got this map to show us
exactly where these megaphones are.
In 2015 architecture students
from the Estonian Academy of Arts
came together on an assignment
to explore the concept of a public forest library.
Students set about designing a place
where the only book is nature,
and to read means to listen.
What resulted were these.
They're called Ruup.
Three enormous megaphones that appear as if from nowhere.
They look so ominous, sitting quietly among the fir trees,
like relics once used by giants centuries ago.
The students consulted with an acoustics engineer
to perfect their design.
Each megaphone was hand built out of larch wood
and has a diameter of three meters,
and each megaphone is six meters from the center point.
The distance and angles of the megaphones
are such that when standing at the center point
you're supposed to hear a sort of unique
surround sound effect, sort of like
an amplification of the sounds of the forest.
(wind blowing through trees)
(birds calling)
These of course aren't going to work
like electric megaphones,
but there's a deliberate element of having to use your mind
to really appreciate what you hear.
Musicians have even come here
to use these megaphones for concerts
because of the acoustics they provide.
It's interesting these structures
can either be your ears or your voice
depending on what you're looking for.
(whistling)
(tapping megaphone)
♪ Sunshine on my shoulders ♪
♪ Makes me happy ♪
(laughs) I can't sing that tune.
♪ The sound of silence ♪
(birds twittering)
It's gotten a little bit later now
and now the bird sounds are really picking up.
You know, I can't really tell if standing in the middle
is any louder than standing off to the side.
I almost feel like this works a little bit better
if you put your head at the small part.
(birds twittering)
While their intended purpose is to listen
to the forest that surrounds us,
perhaps their secondary effect
is really getting us to listen to our own thoughts.
(bright music)
The cellphone reception here is spotty at best,
giving you a chance to really be present.
To use these megaphones to amplify the environment
and drown out everything except it and ourselves.
And because of that Everyman's Right
that I was talking about earlier,
you can actually come and sleep here if you want to.
You just bring a sleeping bag and curl up
inside one of these giant megaphones.
The other side to this, is of course
these megaphones are now a bit of a tourist draw.
How well can we really appreciate nature
when people are filtering in and out all day?
And in a way, it sort of begs the question,
do we really need man made structures
to be able to appreciate nature?
Well, the answer sometimes is yes.
Sometimes it takes an art installation in a forest
to get us to go to the forest.
Sometimes it takes giant megaphones in nature
to get us to listen to nature.
Thanks so much for watching.
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(slow music)