[Image: Jorgen Tandberg and Yo Murat's winning design] “In Texas some bat lovers have excavated caves and built towers on their land to encourage bat settlement. I’m interested in initiating a project suitable for bats in London. A number of partners have joined me this year to launch an open competition to design a bat house to give a much-needed year-round habitat to bats in the Southwest London area. There is great pressure on bat numbers in London as buildings get redeveloped and home improvements leave little space for bats to live in. In this structure the bats are our client and we hope to be able to accommodate different species that have different housing needs, the raising of a family, hibernation etc.”

The Bat House Project is a collaborative initiative to imagine and design a home for bats in London. The Project highlights the potential for architects, builders, home-owners and conservationists to work together to produce wildlife-friendly building design. It connects the worlds of art and ecology to encourage public engagement with ecology issues. The Project builds on the Mayor of London’s policies to raise awareness of urban biodiversity and to support the survival of London’s ten bat species.

The Bat House will be built at the WWT London Wetlands Centre in Barnes, in South West London. It will be accompanied by a publication, an exhibition and a limited edition artwork by Jeremy Deller. The Bat House will be a building of aesthetic and environmental excellence, built with sustainable materials, offering a home to bats and an educational visitor attraction for people. Visitors to this website can take part in monthly Design Challenges, and also contribute or browse through ideas, images and information about bats and buildings. These Resources will remain as an online information bank.

Jorgen Tandberg and Yo Murata won the overall competition. You can see a list of additional winners here.

[Image: Still from Jeremy Deller's Memory Bucket 2003. Courtesy the artist and The Modern Institute, Glasgow] About Jeremy Deller: An internationally acclaimed artist, Jeremy Deller won the Turner Prize in 2004 with ‘Memory Bucket’, a film about Texas which included 8 minutes of footage of 3 million bats leaving Frio Cave in Texas. After winning the Turner Prize, Deller announced his intention to build “a large bat house somewhere in the UK. This would be a piece of architecture, a sculpture and a living, working object.” According to the Tate: “Collaboration and participation are central to Deller’s work. He acts as curator, producer or director of a broad range of projects, including orchestrated events, films and publications, which draw attention to forms of culture on the fringes of the mainstream or reveal hidden histories.” More >> [via]