Google Maps birdhouses provide shelter, navigational aid for winged travelers

Urban birdhouses get the Google Maps treatment with Taiwanese designer Shu-Chun Hsiao's clever, eye-catching Project Google Birdhouse.

Wed, Feb 13 2013 at 11:34 AM

Related Topics:

Art & Architecture, Birds, Google, Green Design

Photos: Shu-Chun Hsiao

Today, a notable dispatch from the world of high-concept designer birdhouses.

On his mission to put a witty, animal kingdom-minded spin on Google’s ubiquitous map pins, Taiwanese designer Shu-Chun Hsiao has launched Project Google Birdhouse. Basically, the ongoing endeavor involves him going around town (Taipei?) installing and photographing small birdhouses in the shape of reddish orange bubble markers. Or maybe there's just one that he keeps on moving around ... I'm not quite sure.

Installed in hard-to-miss urban locations and not blended into more natural environs as most birdhouses tend to be, without a doubt they'll confuse the living hell out of already disoriented humans who have imbided more than a few cocktails. OMG, have I died and been zapped into a giant Google Map? Can I write Google Reviews from heaven? So, does this mean that I can fly?

As for our feathered friends, the habitable icons are meant to provide perch-less shelter while also serving as navigational aids.

Explains Hsiao:

Google Map had created a remarkable landmark icon, showing the sites on its street views. To search for a landmark with online google map, we can scroll to zoom from the satellite, soon we'll be able to wander on streets, virtually. Birds, have the most real experience of google map. Birds can fly through the city, through streets. A birdhouse becomes their destination as google map does.

The project is aiming to put numbers of birdhouses all over the city for bird to accommodate. The iconic symbol will become a navigating landmark for the flying birds.

Love it. Loads more images of Project Google Birdhouse over at Hsiao's Flickr account. And although these avian abodes aren't in production as far as I know, I'm sensing that this concept could turn out to be a DIY-friendly backyard project for crafty birdwatchers.

Via [Gizmodo], [Designboom]

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