The squat, round hut known as the Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky may look like an enchanted hobbit home, but it is in fact the work of British artist Chris Drury who built the structure as a rustic camera obscura.

Located on the largest museum campus in the United States behind the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Cloud Chamber is a unique work that mixes fairy tale design with medieval technology to create one of the most unique spaces in the world. The low-lying hut is made of large, dry stone blocks in the shape of a rocky igloo with a lush, green turf sitting on top. There is a single wooden door leading into the chamber which becomes light-tight when the door is closed. The only illumination in the 14-foot diameter room comes from a small hole in the roof of the chamber which acts as a camera obscura, a medieval optics trick that ends up projecting a mirror image of the area on the lit side of the camera. Thus the interior of the cloud chamber has trees, clouds, and blue sky projected across the white cement walls.

The Cloud Chamber ultimately allows visitors to virtually walk among the clouds and the treetops using a technology that requires nothing but sunshine. 

Update as of April 2021: Temporarily closed for renovations. 

Update as of May 2022: The location is now open.