Urban Aeries

We’re happy to announce that Melissa McDonnell, M.Arch ’11, Rice University (in partnership with Animal Architecture’s Ned Dodington) has won a prestigious RDA (Rice Design Alliance) Houston Initiatives Grant for a very cool project. The project is titled “Urban Aeries” and aims to design urban roosting habitats for Houston’s migratory bird population.

We’re happy to announce that Melissa McDonnell, M.Arch ’11, Rice University (in partnership with Animal Architecture’s Ned Dodington) has won a prestigious RDA (Rice Design Alliance) Houston Initiatives Grant for a very cool project. The project is titled “Urban Aeries” and aims to design urban roosting habitats for Houston’s migratory bird population.

Over the course of this summer Melissa will endeavor to increase awareness of some of Houston’s most overlooked city inhabitants (birds) while encouraging birding activities and maybe offsetting some lost revenue for Houston’s least desirable rooftop parking spaces. Here’s the gist from the RDA website:

Claiming that Houston is home to dozens of species of birds that are rarely seen among the downtown area, Melissa seeks to bridge the gap between the dense population of people and birds by means of various urban interventions. With the aid of the $2,500 grant, one such suggestion is using the rooftops of city garages to incorporate urban roosting and observational structures.

A few of the images included in their grant proposal are shown below (a pdf of the proposal can be viewed here). The RDA has offered to fund the first phase, the research component, of the grant which will be completed this summer. A design and prototyping phase is planned to begin immediately following. Expect to see the most current updates on Animal Architecture.

Images copyright Melissa McDonnell and Ned Dodington.

You May Also Like
Read More

Built for Animals

Though we consider ourselves to be the official repository of all things Animal Architecture we can’t help but…
Read More

Inside the World of Animal Architecture

What if humans weren't the central focus of architecture? What if the design process included the needs wildlife? Tyler Rudick delves into the world of Animal Architecture in this issue of CultureMap.
Read More

2014 VENICE BIENNALE

This is an amazing opportunity for Animal Architecture, our award winning projects and cross-species design in general. But I need your help to get us there. Starting now Animal Architecture is embarking on a two phased campaign.
Read More

Beehive Highrise

BeehiveHighrise utilizes a redesigned system which enables access from the sides, with each tray fitting snugly and keeping the box enclosed. This allows the hives to be lined up in rows as well as stacked, forming a wall of hives that could be shared among several beekeepers. One of these walls could hold as many as 90 hives, each of which could pollinate around 240 million flowers daily.
Read More

Buildings + Germs

... architecture and more specially buildings, are rather poor opponents against pandemics. Urban planning seems to have a shot, but buildings - their scale, their materials, their systems, are weak at best and more likely a fool's errand; wasting time, effort and money to combat a foe they cannot defeat at exactly a time when resources are slim.