From the Earth, To the Sky

From The Earth, To The Sky

Timber Bird Houses Dyed from Soil As Part of Front Elevation

2023/24 ARC2017 1:1 Creative Material Practice Report

Student Number: 210512715

Word Count: 1099

Cover photo. 1:1 physical model of bird house vertically attached to external wall of building front.

Table of Content

Section 1 Research and Proposal......p3-4

Section 2 Application of Research-informed Principle......p5

Section 3 Tectonic Parameters......p6

Section 4 Detailed Design Clarity......p7

Section 5 Process Record......p8-10

List of Figures......p11

Bibliography......p11

My site is located at the lower end of the forest on the slope between Howard St and Liddell St near the quayside of North Shields. The performance arts centre I designed will be the home of dancers in and around North Shields, whereas the bird houses vertically attached to the sea-facing facade of my building will be their ‘home’ as well I hope my bird houses can bring a balance of ‘stillness’ to ‘dynamics’ of birds as amphibians

In North Tyneside, one of the most common bird types is Herring Gull. It takes approximately four years for young seagulls to reach maturity. 1 During first year, they predominantly exhibit a brown or mottled grey coloration, typically adorned with an abundance of downy feathers on their body and neck. 2During their second year, the white and grey markings become less prominent, particularly on the upper wings, resulting in a fading effect. 3By the third year, their heads undergo a transformation and acquire adult colours, typically in the form of white. 4 The brown feathers underwent a transformation, gradually changing their colour to a combination of grey and white. 5

The Herring Gull population has been affected by the rapidly changing climate. 6The nesting sites of these creatures are negatively impacted by the combination of rising sea levels and intensified storm activity, resulting in a decrease in their reproductive success

1 Bird Fact, ‘Baby Seagulls: All You Need to Know (with Pictures)’, Bird Fact, 10 March 2022 <https://birdfact.com/articles/baby-seagulls> [accessed 10 May 2024].

2 Bird Fact, ‘Baby Seagulls: All You Need to Know (with Pictures)’.

3 Bird Fact, ‘Baby Seagulls: All You Need to Know (with Pictures)’.

4 Bird Fact, ‘Baby Seagulls: All You Need to Know (with Pictures)’.

5 Bird Fact, ‘Baby Seagulls: All You Need to Know (with Pictures)’.

6 John Brooks, ‘The Herring Gull: An Overview of Its Characteristics and Habits’, Wild Explained, 14 September 2023 <https://wildexplained.com/animal-encyclopedia/the-herring-gull-an-overview-of-itscharacteristics-and-habits/> [accessed 10 May 2024].

Figure 1. Adult Herring Gulls and Juvenile Herring Gulls (circled in red) in Tynemouth.

Figure 2 (left). Juvenile Herring Gull swimming in North Shields Quayside Figure 3 (right). Adult Herring Gull flying in the sky above North Shields.

rate. 7Furthermore, alterations in ocean currents might impact the accessibility and dispersion of their prey, exacerbating their ca pacity to locate sufficient supplies of nourishment. 8 If my building could provide juvenile gulls with fixed shelters, a ‘base camp’ that can shelter from wind and rain and build nests,the gulls would be willing to accept it

I plan to preserve the sloping roof and three walls of the traditional artificial bird's nest, in order to facilitate downward drainage and wind resistance, and have designed the size of the nest opening suitable for the size of juvenile herring gulls. Also, in order for the entire row of bird nests to adhere vertically to the facade, the wooden boards should be as lightweight as possible, but not too fragile

For wood types, cedar would be a good choice for building bird houses. Cedar has good durability, it can resist the influence of harsh weather, and has good insulation 9 It is highly suited for regions with hilly climates that experience winter precipitation like North Shields 10 It is best not to use processed wood for interior of bird houses, such as plywood, as a material for bird's houses. 11

My proposal is multiple groups of vertical bird houses attached to timber facade of my building and I will use environmentally friendly materials such as earth, expired sunflower oil, and expired eggs to make coatings for timber painting. My concept is that wood grows from solid soil, and birds stand in sturdy and warm homes built from such wood, facing the sea and flying towards the places they want to go

7 Brooks, ‘The Herring Gull: An Overview of Its Characteristics and Habits’.

8 Brooks, ‘The Herring Gull: An Overview of Its Characteristics and Habits’.

9 Woodland Trust, ‘Cedar’, Woodland Trust, n.d. <https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/cedar/> [accessed 12 May 2024].

10 Woodland Trust, ‘Cedar’.

11 Woodworking Trade, ‘5 Best Types of Wood for Making Birdhouses (Comparison Chart)’, Woodworking Trade, 2024 <https://www.woodworkingtrade.com/best-wood-for-birdhouse/> [accessed 12 May 2024].

Figure 4. Juvenile Herring Gull. Figure 5. A typical bird house on tree.

Figure 6 3D sketch of planned vertical nests. Figure 7. Sectional sketch of nests.

Figure 8 (above). Some dimensions of the nest. Figure 9 (below). Simple sketch of space for juvenile gull.

Figure 10. Random sketch of size of timber boards to be cut. Figure 11 Refinement of size of nests.

I made a SketchUP model first to show my expected product. There will be six bird houses vertically arranged together to be attached to front elevation of my building, which is 4m height for each of the four floors. These bird houses will form beautiful scenic lines together with the windows on the front elevation.

In reality the timber board material will be cedar, a common and easily recyclable wood in cold climate regions The structure of the bird house is simple, easy to assemble, disassemble, and recycle, consisting only of wood dyed with natural dyes and steel nails There are additional timber boards on the back wall to facilitate the bird houses group being nailed to facade.

With these bird houses being located neat the quayside of North Shields, juvenile herring gulls, the ‘children’ of the big sea bird groups, having a stable place to grow and a starting point to take off towards the sea and sky

Figure 12. SketchUP model of my proposal

Figure 13. Back of the SketchUP model.

Figure 14. Southwest View of Bird House.

Figure 15. Top View 1 of Bird House. Figure 16. Northeast View of Bird House.

Figure 17. Top View 2 of Bird House.

Figure 18. Southeast View of 1:1 physical model.

Figure 19. A group of bird houses vertically attached to front elevation, with a total height of 3600mm, shorter than height of each floor(4000mm) of my building.

Figure 20 Exploded structural picture of a single bird house.

Figure 21.East Elevation. Figure 22.West Elevation. Figure 23 Front Elevation.

Figure 24. Back Elevation.

Figure 25.Southwest View. Figure 26. Top View.

Figure 27. Fence at the entrance.

Figure 28. Triangular prism as one of the supporting structures

Figure 29. Dimensions of cedar boards.

Figure 30. Disassembly of cedar boards.

Figure 31. Dimensions of cedar structural components. Figure 32. Disassembly of cedar structural components.

Figure 33. 1:200 Building Front Elevation with bird houses attached.

Figure 34. 1:20 Part Front Elevation with bird houses attached.

A single bird house is going to be 30cm long, 30cm wide and 60cm tall, with the roof slope of 50cm long and 45 degrees inclined.

The structure of the bird house is very simple, consisting of three timber walls, a timber roof, a timber fence and some timber supporting blocks being nailed together by steel nails. I used bandsaw to cut out the sizes of timber boards I wanted first, and then brought them together as a structure. The supporting blocks are recycled from the scrap area of workshop. The assembly process was smooth except for fixing the supporting blocks for ceiling, which was challenging because when drilling holes for nails by right hand, it was difficult to stabilize the supporting blocks with the back wall and a side wall by left hand at the same time. In order to better support the weight of the upper bird house(s) in a group of vertically arranged bird houses in reality and for the sake of aesthetics, I have temporarily added some timber cladding for the roof, which looked more realistic.

Figure 35 Timber board cut for later use.

Figure 36. Timber board for making side walls of bird house.

Figure 37. West side wall of bird house.

Figure 38. Timber bar abandoned by someone else in workshop.

Figure 39. Timber blocks cut from the abandoned timber bar.

Figure 40. Foundation of timber house been put upside down.

Figure 41. Timber blocks been nailed to the foundation of timber houses.

Figure 42. Foundation of bird house.

Figure 43. Wall nailing. Figure 44. Two side walls and the back wall done.

Figure 45. Front fence nailing. Figure 46. Supporting block Figure 47. Supporting blocks.

Figure 48. Roof nailing.

Figure 49. Close-up of supporting block at the ceiling.

Figure 50. Cladding nailing.

Figure 51. Boards for attaching the bird house to external wall.

Figure 52.Close-up of bird house fence.

Figure 53. Structure finished.

I tried using expired egg yolks and filtered soil water to make the first layer of paint for the bird house and using egg white with expired sunflower oil and semi boiling soil water as the second layer of paint. The more egg liquid there is, the higher the overall adhesion of the coating, but the lighter the colour; The more land and water there is, the darker the colour of the paint, but the lower the adhesion. The colour of boiled soil water is lighter than that at room temperature, and the depth of colour is easily adjusted by the amount of soil water.

Figure 54. Dark brown soil collected from courtyard of my accommodation.

Figure 55. Soil stirred by my mixer.

Figure 56. Soil liquid poured out.

Figure 57. Soil liquid put aside for later use.

Figure 58. Semi-boiled and boiled soil liquid making.

Figure 59 Boiling soil liquid.

Figure 60. Room-temperature liquid, semi-boiled liquid and boiled liquid.

Figure 61. Egg white and egg yolk.

Figure 62. Roomtemperature liquid for pouring into egg white and yolk later

Figure 63 Roomtemperature liquid filtration.

Figure 64 Roomtemperature liquid filtration.

Figure 65. Roomtemperature liquid ready for egg white.

Figure 66. Testing the colour of room-temperature liquid+ egg white

Figure 67. Roomtemperature liquid ready for egg yolk.

Figure 68. Testing the colour of room-temperature liquid +egg yolk.

Figure 69. Semi-boiled liquid filtration.

Figure 70 Semi-boiled liquid ready for egg white.

Figure 71. Testing the colour of semi-boiled liquid +egg white.

Figure 72. Semi-boiled liquid ready for egg yolk.

Figure 73. Testing the colour of semi-boiled liquid+ egg

Figure 74. Boiled liquid filtration.

Figure 75. Filtrated boiled liquid been put aside for later use.

Figure 76. Boiled liquid ready for egg white.

Figure 77. Testing the colour of boiled liquid +egg white

Figure 78. Boiled liquid ready for egg yolk.

Figure 79 Testing the colour of boiled liquid+ egg yolk.

Figure 80 Egg white and sunflower oil to be added into semi-boiled liquid protection layer over the first paint.

Figure 81 Semi-boiled liquid +egg white+ sunflower oil.

Figure 82. Testing the colour of semi-boiled liquid +egg white+ sunflower oil.

Figure 83. Semi-boiled liquid+ egg yolk+ sunflower oil

Figure 84. Testing the colour of semi-boiled liquid+ egg yolk+ sunflower oil

Figure 85 Decided to use all the remaining room-temperature liquid and egg yolk for

Figure 86. First Paint for side walls, backwall, fence and roof.

Figure 87. How the house look like after first paint.

Figure 88 Decided to use all the remaining semi-boiled liquid+ egg white+ sunflower oil for second paint.

Figure 89 Second Paint for all the exterior of bird house.

Figure 90. Colour testing timber boards summary

Figure 91. Egg white with liquids at different temperature.

Figure 92. Egg yolk with liquids at different temperature.

Figure 93. Southwest Elevation. Figure 94. Southeast Elevation. Figure 95. East Elevation.

Figure 96. West Elevation.

Figure 97. Branches inside the bird house.

Figure 98. Front Elevation. Figure 99. Top view.

List of Figures

All the figures belong to the author except for the following ones:

Figure 4. Juvenile Herring Gull.

Bird Fact, ‘Baby Seagulls: All You Need to Know (with Pictures)’, Bird Fact, 20 March 2022 <https://birdfact.com/articles/baby-seagulls> [accessed 10 May 2024]

Figure 5. A typical bird house on tree.

Etsy Inc, ‘Natural wooden birdhouse, simple and classic design, outdoor birdhouse, unfished cedar, hanging birdhouse, mounted birdhouse, handmade’, Etsy UK, n.d. <https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1553347858/natural-wooden-birdhouse-simpleand?ga_order=most_relevant&amp;ga_search_type=all&amp;ga_view_type=gallery&amp;ga_search_query=bird+feeder&amp;ref=sc_gallery-1511&amp;sts=1&amp;search_preloaded_img=1&amp;plkey=e2434051c6b9688bb80bdd749038cd99342e51de:1553347858> [accessed 10 May 2024]

Bibliography

Bird Fact, ‘Baby Seagulls: All You Need to Know (with Pictures)’, Bird Fact, 10 March 2022 <https://birdfact.com/articles/baby-seagulls> [accessed 10 May 2024]

Brooks, John, ‘The Herring Gull: An Overview of Its Characteristics and Habits’, Wild Explained, 14 September 2023 <https://wildexplained.com/animal-encyclopedia/theherring-gull-an-overview-of-its-characteristics-and-habits/> [accessed 10 May 2024]

Woodland Trust, ‘Cedar’, Woodland Trust, n.d. <https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/cedar/> [accessed 12 May 2024]

Woodworking Trade, ‘5 Best Types of Wood for Making Birdhouses (Comparison Chart)’, Woodworking Trade, 2024 <https://www.woodworkingtrade.com/best-wood-forbirdhouse/> [accessed 12 May 2024]