animal wall

The Animal Wall is an "ecological artwork" along a river embankment forming which is part of a 50m long boundary wall at the edge of a new residential development situated in the Century Wharf area of Cardiff Bay. Designed by London-based German artist Gitta Gschwendtner, it consists of 1000 precast woodcrete nesting boxes of various sizes (matching the number of units in the residential development), allowing for different species of birds and bats to inhabit the wall and be introduced to the natural environemnt, an attempt to mitigate the effects that the recent building developments have on local environment.

The resulting wall feature is a visually powerful matrix of dark grey boxes arranged in an ordered randomness, lined along the length of the wall to infinity, almost making the long impenetrable wall along the waterfront bearable. Designed in consultation with ecologists, the boxes have yet to be inhabited as, Gschwendtner claims, the birds and bats won't be looking for places to nest until next spring but "there will be a constant turn-around of tenants" (iconeye.com) and "not everyone will come at the same time".

The artist also insists that bird poo won't be a problem, because "birds keep it very nice and clean around where they nest", though she makes no mention of bats. I'm sure that the residents will also enjoy pleasant evenings accompanied by the melodious sqauwking of a thousand birds and bats circling around their bayview apartments.

With the Animal Wall, the developer has managed to shoot 2 birds with one stone, pulling out the marketing friendly eco card and at the same time, ornamenting and masking (or imbile with a projected function) an otherwise fortress-like boundary wall.

Why not just plant a few trees? Birds nest in trees, don't they?




Gitta Gschwendtner