Comments on: Animal Wall by Gitta Gschwendtner

By: Joseph

Joseph — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:00:26 +0000

very interesting, aestheticaly pleasing, architecturaly evocative I think, stands out well but I wouldnt like to live near birds in a built up context, I prefers mixing birds with trees like here in Johannesburg. The Bats make me run away even further..No thank you, but none the less its architectecturaly atractive.

By: DavidC

DavidC — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:03:10 +0000

Oh, and yes, we did carry our a research review to assess what species were likely to occur in the area, both historically and in the present day, and the design parameters of the boxes (shape, dimensions, hole diameter etc) were specified for individual species which occur in the area today and which might reasonably be expected to use a nest-box in this location and situation.

By: DavidC

DavidC — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:48:24 +0000

Some of the comments above are very ill-informed and are clearly not from ecologists! Fouling was considered, but as Gitta says (above) nesting birds typically do not foul around their nests as this attracts predators: the adults actually collect the chicks’ droppings and dump these well away from the nest site. Bat guano is very small, dry, blackish, inconspicuous and has no detectable odour, reducing to dust very quickly, so is unlikely to be noticeable. The probability of adverse smell or appearance around the wall is very low. Mixed nesting by birds (and roosting by bats) is commonplace – just look at your nearest woodland or maritime cliff-face (the wall was designed with the latter in mind). It is not expected that all of the boxes will be used in any one year, and a proportion are likely to be used on rotation in each year. It is not necessary to provide nesting materials to ensure uptake – who do you think goes around providing nesting materials in the wild? Take-up of new nesting boxes may not occur for up to five years or more after installation, usually after a suitable period of weathering. The boxes will be monitored to see what the actual take-up by birds and bats is.

By: designgurunyc

designgurunyc — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 10:15:44 +0000

a wonderful idea , but had more research gone into it it may have had more real use. I question the motive of design over function and wonder really if the spreading and mixing of all the designs of boxes was a wise one. Time will tell which boxes are inhabited and which species actually tolerate each other. In my (limited!) experience of nature, species like to flock with their own sort, and within that ,even, hold some sort of territory dear to them. I hope this has all been considered in the final build and that the species were actually considered more important than the way it looked.

By: tiffany

tiffany — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:22:50 +0000

The idea is super
but the way executed…. like a socialistic concrete apartment block.
But hey, at that time people where happy with those apartment blocks. Maybe the birds are happy with this one. And they get better over time…