Fluctuating Flyways
The fluctuating flyways project explores the role of architectural material culture in reviving dieing traditions of interspecies stewardship. Central to this vision is the proposal for an architectural network called N.E.S.T. (Network for Endangered Species Typologies). The project focuses on the migratory flypath of the increasingly vulnerable house martin avian species, proposing building ‘NESTs’ or ‘bird barometers’ at it’s stopover points, to provide spaces for deep listening to birdsong as an embodied practice of ecosystem monitoring. These self-built temples speculate on the (re)birth of a new distinct vernacular, to expand and connect birding communities, from Dorset UK, to Morocco to The Gambia.
The project is rooted in exploring ways of facilitating the practice of Islah, an Arabic term that translates to “peacemaking”, “reparations” or “reform”–“to improve, to better, to put something into a better position.
Historically, Islah was an integral, yet under-documented, function of the Hima altuyur, or bird sanctuary, a slowly vanishing typology throughout the Islamic world. As industrialized farming practices replace these interspecies pigeon tower typologies, this proposal seeks to revive them in a contemporary context.
Speculative image of NEST structures from UK, Morocco (at the Mountian of moses) to The Gambia (in Kutu Creek alongside Gambia's bird watchers association). Birdsong becomes a shared language of ecosystem monitoring, a method of embodied ecosystem monitoring along a vulnerable migratory bird flyway.
Interior view of NEST translated to Kutu Creek in The Gambia
Exterior view of NEST translated to Kutu Creek in The Gambia
Re-imagined NEST at the “Mountain of Moses” in Morocco, located along the vital migratory highway of the Strait of Gibraltar. The structure serves as a meeting point for local Raptor Rescue Teams, which play a crucial role in safeguarding house martins and numerous other migratory bird species.
Initial 1:1 willow experiments organized to develop and refine NEST typology