As a kid you probably spent a Sunday afternoon laboring away on a birdhouse from one of those cookie-cutter carpentry kits. For some, a birdhouse is probably nothing more than a childhood relic that collects birdfeed in your backyard, but for others constructing something as simple as a birdhouse can lead to greater endeavors.
UH space architecture professor and alumna Olga Bannova has taken the craft of bird construction to a whole new level by designing and building a space-inspired birdhouse made of stainless steel and plastic for a traveling exhibition in Japan called The Birdhouse Project, which features birdhouses made by architects from around the world including Cecilia Hertz, Andreas Volger and Seichi Onobori. The project encourages architects to create futuristic environments where humans and nature coexist while promoting environmental preservation.
Bannova received a master’s of architecture degree from the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture in 2001 and later a master’s of science in space architecture in 2005. She currently teaches studio architecture and space architecture at UH.
Bannova spent last fall contemplating different birdhouse design concepts and constructed her unique prototype. The birdhouse has two spiral staircases made from twisted stainless steel extending from opposite sides of a plastic broken sphere with holes in it.
"(The staircase) is kind of coming from eternity and going to eternity," Bannova said of her design. "I was trying to actually look at it a little bit from a distance and not see it as something very utilitarian, but more about what it look likes from a different perspective."
Even though Bannova’s idea of a birdhouse may seem far-fetched, the prototype remains true to the laws of physics for space and orbit. Bannova used a broken sphere for the bird’s nest because all objects made for space travel and orbit should be made from either spherical or cylindrical shapes so that the pressure remains evenly distributed across the surfaces.
"The sphere can kind of be used as a prototype for habitats in orbit or in different harsh environments because it has to be pressurized, and all pressurized forms should be circular," Bannova said.
While space exploration may not carry a great deal of importance among the urgencies of daily life and world affairs, for Bannova it’s a curiosity that if explored will only enlighten our generation.
"While we’re learning more about the universe we are learning more about the earth and what we came from and where we are going," Bannova said. "So basically it gives us more of a feeling of security about what we’re learning about ourselves."
