Designer Bird Houses for Designer Birds

Question: do designer bird houses attract a better class of bird? Or do the same grey sparrows come, no matter what the place looks like... Here's a chance to test the theory: a display and charity auction of birdhouses by the most fashionable architects and artists around. Adventure Ecology and Phillips de Pury auction house invited 20 famous artists to recycle the paper, plastic and wood waste from the debris of packing and moving art works and create houses for birds,bats and bees. These new, recycled creations would be habitats for their rapidly declining numbers in urban areas. The three best houses will be replicated and sold at museums.

Starting with the ubiquitous Stuart Haygarth who has made his out of plastic take-away food trays and salvaged wood and ending with Tom Price's ball made of silver plastic bottle tops, coir (coconut hair), latex and wire, there is a lot of ingenuity and fun to be seen. While we aren't sure how much of a sense of humour a hungry bird has, who could fail to be amused by Gavin Turk's Radiator Hive, made out of an abandoned radiator, stuck high in a tree. Or terrified by Dracula's Four Season's Bat hotel, made out of wooden crates and pieces of wood.

Michael Young: For the architectural and very particular bird, there is Michael Young's bird house made out of auction preview catalogues,

Paul Smith couldn't resist doing his in his signature striped paper for the true designer bird--a parrot would match this one perfectly.

Tozio Azumi:This is a bird house for very elegant birds, with its lyrical paper swirls made out of auction catalogues. :: Phillips de Pury & Company
More on the Artists and Birdhouses

:: Chandelier from the Sea
:: Feed the Birds Day
:: DIY: Minimalist Gourd Bird House
:: Adventure Ecology