[untitled] nest for owls
with Mike Seymour

Location: Richmond, BC, Canada
Date: 2016
Media: Porcelain resin, willow trees
Dimensions: 50” (127cm) x 36” (91cm) x 34” (86cm)
Commissioned by: Polygon Homes
Collaborator: Mike Seymour
Horticulturalist: Jan Haenraets
Arborist: Max Rathburn
Wildlife Biologist: Sofi Hindmarch
Engineering Advisor: CY Loh
Fabrication: Mike Seymour + Alyssa Schwan, Stuart's Yacht Renovations

untitled [nest for owls] is Richmond’s first Art + Habitat project. The nest responded to the call to design habitat for barn owls (Tyto alba) and to serve as a piece of public art work. The provision of a nest was required for barn owls that inhabited a property to be developed for a new residential community. A pollarded willow tree houses a sculptural vessel designed in collaboration with ceramicists, fabricators and ecologists. The vessel is made of an innovative hybrid polymerized porcelain developed specifically to have the texture, fragility and patina of unglazed porcelain without the high firing temperature. The vessel’s shape is a 3D scan of an existing cavity in a tree that is adapted to meet the ideal dimensions for a protected and safe nesting environment for the threatened owl species.