PUBLIC GARDEN SOLUTIONS 

Public Art Commission 
In Collaboration with Lira Valencia, commissioned by Turf Project Space, Croydon 
Desire Paths, 2024
 
To encourage the nesting of swifts in Croydon, we produced a series of swift boxes and placed them on a number of loved, sentimental, and contested buildings under threat of closure, privatisation, and prospective transformation into luxury flats.
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Given that swifts are endangered and legally protected, the purpose of the bird boxes is to irritate, stall, and disrupt any future large-scale planning applications by creating conditions for a web of red tape, delays, and negative PR.
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We worked with architectural collective Feral Partnerships to design an experimental swift box that can be quickly installed and attached via a hanging mechanism suitable for drainpipes or other suitable external features. This model is available as a step-by-step manual, allowing the project to be self-sustaining and adaptable to different community contexts. It is designed in the style of an IKEA manual, in tribute to our meeting as teenage cashiers at IKEA Croydon.