Peek!
Third Year Studio
4 Weeks
Brief
A birdhouse for tree swallows that promotes the well being of wildlife, education, and encourages community engagement. This project focuses on design research, user-centered design, product semantics, and manufacturability
Tree Swallow Research
Research on the unique preferences of Tree Swallows to ensure best chances of use by the species.
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Inspiration and Ideation
To use the bird house as an opportunity to facilitate education for children, the concept of exploring ways of allowing the visitors to see inside the birdhouse was developed.
This was explored through the use of cameras, windows, and mirrors.
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How it works
Using the machanism from a periscope, a series of mirrors are placed inside the neck of the bird house, allowing users to see the birds nesting inside.
The house is made from 1/4 inch plywood, with a translucent acrylic roof. This allows for light to enter the bridhouse.
The front of the birdhouse hinges forward to allow the hosue to be cleaned at the end of nesting season.
Manufacturing
Further expansion on this project lead to material and manufacturing exploration.
To create a product that would withstand months of use outdoors, the components that house the mirrors would have to be weather proof. This lead to an iteration of the Peek birdhouse that uses HDPE for these sections. This allows for detailed mounts to be incorporated into the body to accommodate the mirrors.