Designing a Bird - Safe Window Treatment for the Frick Environmental Center
MY ROLE
Research & Analysis
Conceptualization & Design
Physical Prototyping & Iterations
Materiality Studies
Final Documentation
COURSE
Architecture Options Studio 48-205
Interface Architecture: Architecture Interface
Professor Eddy Man Kim
PARTNERS TIMELINE
Oscar Wang Jan - May 2023
Phase 1: Research & Empathy Building
Focused on researching bird mortality caused by architectural glass. Focused on developing sincere radical empathy for birds as motivation for further design work. My focus was understanding the American Crow.
Why do birds hit glass?
Birds aren’t able to see glass due to the reflection, potential greenery behind the glass, or too much transparency. This diagram starts to split the views of human convenience and bird safety into two entities.
How would the world look if we prioritized humans?
How would the world look like if we prioritized birds?
Understanding American Crow Territories
Crows have 5 acre diameter territories where their center’s are at high elevations where coniferous trees are located. Circles that are overlapped are areas where Crows territories overlap, which can be considered dangerous. Areas outside of that would be areas that are safest to build homes.
What other kinds of areas do crows hit?
Crows fly anywhere from 200-3000 ft. in the air. So, looking at the chart you can see which types of cities crows are most likely to interact with.
Further, sound is important because a crow is most likely to attack a material if it reflects sound.
Phase 2: Understanding the Frick Environmental Center
We then researched and analyzed the Frick Environmental Center to gain a deeper understanding of the intentions, execution, and realizations of the building.
Then, we chose the specific section of the FEC building we were going to make bird safe...
Interior View
Exterior View
Structural View
Phase 3: Facade Design Iterations
Based on the research and analysis of the Frick Environmental Center, we prototyped architectural modules that can make the glass wall on the north facade safer for birds while allowing specific human experiences.
Then, we started looking at placement of different sizes of these modules in order to still allow for the human experience of intentional openings in the facade allowing for human sight. However, we still kept the 2x2 grid to keep the openings bird safe.
Phase 2: Understanding the Frick Environmental Center
We then researched and analyzed the Frick Environmental Center to gain a deeper understanding of the intentions, execution, and realizations of the building.
