Brunebasse, a temporary timber observation tower on a Vaudémont hillside, stands opposite the stone remnants of a medieval keep.

Brunebasse Frames a Vaudémont Hillside Opposite a Medieval Keep Without Enclosing It

Name: France
Address: France

2026-11-08

Across a hillside in Vaudémont, northeastern France, a timber observation tower now looks back at a medieval ruin. The stone keep of Brunehaut stands heavy and closed. The tower beside it is light and open instead.

The tower is called Brunebasse. The architecture studio GABU designed and built it for the 2021 round of L’Écho du Marteau, a festival that tests unconventional building ideas. The studio’s architects treated the structure as a test of how little material a viewing platform needs.

Brunebasse sets light timber against old stone, a dialogue that echoes Restored French estate blends historic and modern, another take on how French heritage sites get reinterpreted.

Timber tower on a Vaudémont hillside, separated from a medieval keep ruin across the slope. — all images ©Atelier GABU

A timber observation tower built for views

The observation tower design rests on a light grid of slender dimensional lumber. Instead of walls, it offers a frame. Visitors see the fields and tree canopy from the deck, not from behind masonry.

The builders assembled the frame by hand. They joined the timbers through direct connections, creating an open structure that depends on each member’s position.

Brunebasse timber observation tower built by hand, its open timber frame rising from grass. — Brunebasse is a temporary timber observation tower designed and hand-built by Atelier GABU

Fabric that filters the light

Parts of the exterior are wrapped in a semi-transparent textile. The fabric softens direct sunlight. It also keeps the surrounding landscape visible, so the tower does not block the hillside it sits on.

The fabric does more than filter light. As the sun moves across the day, the diagonal bracing casts geometric shadows onto the textile. Those shadows make the frame’s logic readable, both from the deck and from the ground below.

Translucent fabric panels wrap several bays of the timber frame, softening its outline. — semi-transparent textile membranes wrap select bays of the timber structure

For more on the semi-transparent textile that softens the tower’s light, see innovative membrane designs in global architecture, which explores how fabric skins reshape building envelopes.

Brunebasse shows how a small temporary timber structure can frame a landscape without enclosing it. This structure does not compete with the ruin across the slope. It gives visitors a different way to read the hill, one that depends on air, light and the lines of the frame.

Sunlight casts diagonal timber bracing as shifting shadow patterns across the fabric wall. — sunlight projects the diagonal timber bracing as shifting geometric shadows across the textile envelope

Light filtering through the fabric veil, with the wooded landscape still visible beyond the frame. — the fabric veil filters incoming solar radiation while preserving sightlines into the wooded landscape

Visitors climb internal timber levels toward the open upper deck of the tower. — visitors ascend the internal structural levels to reach the unroofed upper belvedere deck

Hillside site facing the stone ruins of the Brunehaut keep across open grassland. — the installation is sited on a hillside facing the stone remnants of the Brunehaut medieval keep

Distant view of the timber tower standing alone on a grassy Vaudémont hillside. — distant view of the Brunebasse observation tower standing on a grassy hillside in Vaudémont

Timber framework partly assembled on a Vaudémont hillside during construction of the tower. — construction construction construction

Early construction stage of the timber tower frame on a Vaudémont hillside. — construction construction construction

Timber tower frame rising during construction on a sloped Vaudémont hillside. — construction construction construction

Source: designboom.com

Frequently asked questions

Who designed the Brunebasse observation tower in Vaudémont?

The architecture studio GABU designed and built Brunebasse for the 2021 round of L’Écho du Marteau, a festival that tests unconventional building ideas. The tower sits on a hillside in Vaudémont, northeastern France.

What does the semi-transparent fabric on the tower do?

The semi-transparent textile wrapping parts of the exterior softens direct sunlight. It also keeps the surrounding landscape visible, so the tower does not block the hillside it sits on.

How were the timbers of the Brunebasse tower joined together?

The builders assembled the timber frame by hand. They joined the timbers through direct connections, creating an open structure that depends on each member’s position.