Bathouse


The Bathouse Project (out of competition), UK, 2007


Gabriele Del Buono


Since bats always fascinated me both for their ugliness - functional to their survival and search for food - and their mysterious and nocturnal life, this competition seemed very interesting to me. After searching about preservation of Chiroptera on the internet, I decided to recreate a dead trees forest, on which fissures are made under the bark and holes for the day-time summer shelter for the smaller species. Alternatively, it is possible to put wooden bat boxex or bat houses on top of tall poles, but this is a less interesting solution. Eventually - knowing that the traditional place for winter shelter are caves and derelict houses - I choose a screwing tower, useful also for bat-watching visitors, and an artificial cave intended as an empty hill with areas at different temperatures and humidity, useful in different seasons. Unfortunately this project did not continue for lack of time.