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Nestworks exhibited at Arup Phase 2

As part of Fritz Haeg’s Ani­mal Estate 8.0, 51% Stu­dios Archi­tec­ture was invited to exhibit the Nest­work  blocks, bush and boughs at Arup Phase 2, from Octo­ber 16th through Jan­u­ary 20th, 2012.

Other projects on dis­play are:

The Insect Hotel (1: 5 model), 2010 — by Arup Associates
Bees Beside Us, 2011 — by Amy Pliszka
Nest­works for Urban Birds (Block, Bough and Bush), 2010 — by 51% Studios
Pocket Habi­tat, 2010 - Arup Associates
The New York Times arti­cle gives a good overview, or see more about Nest­works here

Nestworks honoured in Animal Architecture Awards

Ani­mal Archi­tec­ture has announced the win­ning entries for the 2011 Ani­mal Archi­tec­ture Awards. They say: “We had an amaz­ing group of projects from all cor­ners of the Globe and an excit­ing mix of fan­tas­ti­cal, plau­si­ble and built projects that rein­ter­pret the way we Human ani­mals might inter­act with our com­pan­ion species. Con­grat­u­la­tions to all of the entrants! Job well done!”

See all the entries here

 

Birds in the blocks

Not con­cerned that they were designed for House Spar­rows, a Blue Tit  fam­ily has been incu­bat­ing their brood in one Union Street Urban Orchard ‘duplexes’ over the last few weeks.

Blue Tit leav­ing Nest­works Block at the Union Street Urban Orchard.  Photo: Peter Thomas

The adapted ready­mades, fash­ioned from a stan­dard Lignacite block, were the first pro­to­types installed for the 2010 Lon­don Fes­ti­val of Archi­tec­ture, so its fit­ting that they were also the first to be occupied.

Com­mis­sioned by the Archi­tec­ture Foun­da­tion as a per­ma­nent legacy for the fes­ti­val, Nest­works fea­ture in the ‘Union Street Urban Orchard Book : A Case Study of Cre­ative Interim Use’ which will be avail­able from The Archi­tec­ture Foun­da­tion web­site and at the book launch tonight.

Urban Birds

Around Valentine’s Day court­ing birds across the UK will begin inspect­ing poten­tial nest­ing sites. Informed and inspired by ornitho­log­i­cal derives with Peter Holden MBE, 51% stu­dios archi­tec­ture has planted scores of ‘assisted ready­mades’ across the Bank­side Urban For­est to increase the vari­ety of nest­ing options open to its urban birds, many of whom are on the endan­gered list.

We dis­cov­ered that the stan­dard hol­low block used to build some of London’s most cel­e­brated archi­tec­ture is made from con­crete bulked with recy­cled wood­shav­ings, a mate­r­ial that when used in nest­boxes is proven to fledge more young than any other.

Syn­er­gis­ti­cally the inte­rior block dimen­sions are text book size for house spar­rows, rad­i­cally in decline in the area. Other species designed for are blue tits, great tits, star­lings, wrens, robins and blackbirds.

A web­site, www.urbanbirds.net,  launches on Valentine’s Day to allow nest­ing activ­ity to be tracked by fam­i­lies and bird lovers across the area. Nest­works is a pub­lic project and a people’s project, com­mis­sioned by the Archi­tec­ture Foun­da­tion as a per­ma­nent legacy for the Lon­don Fes­ti­val of Architecture.

The Emerald Necklace

The site has a unique loca­tion. The Upper Rio Grande Events and Recre­ation Complex’s grounds and build­ings will be the first thing you see when you approach the his­toric town of Creede, from any direc­tion. Along the Sil­ver Thread Scenic High­way, the site and the Wil­low Creek Con­ser­va­tion Area become one gem in an emer­ald neck­lace of scenic val­leys stretch­ing up the Rio Grande. Pro­pos­als for its devel­op­ment must pro­vide a project which is at once an authen­tic sig­na­ture for Creede and a fit­ting ‘jewel’ in the necklace.

The archi­tec­ture and land­scap­ing is an exten­sion and embod­i­ment of Creede and the very vis­i­ble spirit that has cre­ated it.  The atti­tude and spirit of the moun­tain set­tlers was, and con­tin­ues to be, unique.  Local archi­tec­ture reflects the val­ues and sen­si­bil­i­ties of its peo­ple, and this is par­tic­u­larly vis­i­ble in places some­what off the beaten track, where peo­ple have had to wres­tle with avail­able raw mate­ri­als to sur­vive and to make their livelihoods.

51% stu­dios are using the same kind of think­ing that’s been used for well over 100 years in this val­ley, using the local site con­di­tions and mate­ri­als in frank ways that reflect aware­ness of their inher­ent attributes.

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