After a year in the making, three giant wooden megaphones, built by a team of interior architecture students at Estonian Academy of Arts, opened to the public on Sept. 18 in Estonia. (Tõnu Tunnel)

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If that tree is in Southern Estonia’s Voru County, it could possibly make a very loud sound.

Interior architecture students at Estonian Academy of Art designed, built and installed three gigantic wooden megaphones in a forest area in Pähni Nature Centre to amplify the sounds of the forest.

The three megaphones are placed at a distance and angle so that a listener at the center of the triangle can hear a unique, surround effect of sound. The megaphones, which were originally pitched by architecture student Birgit Oigus, will also serve as a sitting and resting area, as well as a stage for small events.

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“The space could be used to carry out an outdoor nature class or a small culture event, it’s really multifunctional,” Marge Rammo from Estonian Forest Management Center said in a press release.

Forests are a significant part of Estonian culture and of its land, with more than 51 percent of Estonia covered in forests. The design project helps visitors to better tune into the rich sounds of the forest as well as enjoy 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,” said Valdur Mikita, an Estonian author who has extensively written about the relationship between Estonian culture and forests.

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