Local architecture practice Studio Massimo has completed a bio-based office in the Netherlands, using bark cladding and an expansive green roof to disguise its form within the surrounding woodland.

Named Office in Nature, the 1,120-square-metre building replaces a derelict events hall on the Tafelberg heath, a protected landscape in North Holland.

According to Amsterdam-based Studio Massimo, the design drew on a historic form of dwelling known as a plaggenhut – homes made by labourers in the region using turf and grass – to create something that would act as an extension of the landscape.

"The atmosphere of the site is genuinely inspiring," the studio's founder Max Verhoeven told Dezeen.

"You feel the millennia of glacial formation, the sand, the heather, the trees shaped by wind. It is magical, and we were very conscious that it should be handled with care, in the design and during construction."

"The building goes beyond disappearing into the heath," he continued. "The roof is an active heather landscape in its own right, planted with around a hundred native, organically grown species. It adds habitat rather than taking it."

On approach from the north, the building's overgrown green roof and a low wall made from repurposed tiles make it almost entirely invisible, save for a path framed by a geometric wooden wall.

Once inside, the building opens up around a seven-metre-high central space, with gabled ceilings lined in pale timber battens that gently curve around the edge of roof lights that run along the entire apex.

Focusing on the use of bio-based materials, the structure of the building was created using laminated timber columns and beams, and its interiors – from walls and ceilings to cupboards and staircases – are finished almost entirely in Red Grandis wood.

Contrasting its hidden northern facade, the southern side of the building projects towards the surrounding heathland with full-height sliding glass doors that provide the offices with panoramic views.

This elevation, as well as Office in Nature's large gable ends, have been clad entirely in panels of textured poplar bark that blend with the trunks of the surrounding trees.

Above, two cut-outs in the southern slope of the roof create terraces for additional meeting rooms and workspaces on the first floor.

"Every working space has direct sliding-door access to outside: the south nature garden, the west terrace, or the first-floor terraces. Always a direct view of natural life unfolding, always a door to it," Verhoeven said.

"Every technical indication, ventilation grilles, smoke detectors, is minimised or hidden, so the interior stays a peaceful frame for the natural backdrop or other pieces of art, which supply all the life the space needs."

Other projects in the Netherlands recently featured on Dezeen include a pair of interlocking homes in Utrecht by Woonpioniers and a demountable timber library in Amsterdam.

The photography is by Riccardo de Vecchi.