51% studios, Peter Holden MBE and Architecture for Humanity London are pleased to announce:
Urban Birds: a call for Public Participation
51% studios’ Nestworks are assisted readymades for the Birds of Bankside in the guise of blocks, boughs and bushes. Using the urban fabric as its canvas, Nestworks is a site-specific project commissioned by the Architecture Foundation to provide nesting habitats for the birds we share our cities with – including Starlings and London’s House Sparrows which are alarmingly in decline. With your help, using citizen-science methodologies*, Nestworks can continue to be both a public project and a people’s project.
We are looking for volunteers to monitor a box and its environs for 20 minutes 1-3 times a week from 15 May - 15 June. The project will kick off with a guided walk through the area by ornithologist Peter Holden MBE and Catherine du Toit of 51% studios Architecture.
The project will allow us are to gain a better understanding of the manner in which the Nestworks and the green spaces adjacent to them are being used, and to make this information available publicly to other organizations engaged in monitoring wildlife in London. Volunteers will gain an understanding of the city as habitat for urban birds and an insight into the methods and benefits of citizen science. Findings will be published on our website.
* Citizen science is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur or nonprofessional scientists. Citizen science is sometimes called “public participation in scientific research.” Citizen scientists can help gather data that will be analyzed by professional researchers. The RSPB Big Garden Watch is a good example. Citizen scientists can also contribute to the analysis as part of a wider community made up of a a mixture of professionals and non professionals.
To find out more come along to 51% studios talk tomorrow at 18.30, 54 Rivington Street.
