Embracing the Wildlife within Architecture Carving Out Spaces for Protected Bats PROJECT MANIFESTO The intent of this project is to bring awareness and to gain a better understanding of why it is important to include ‘buildingreliant species’, such as bats, within the early stages of architectural practice. The exploration begins in Hooke Park as an initial site of exploration. Hooke Park, an oddly shaped piece of land, is a part of the two percent of ancient woodland that still exists in the United Kingdom today. It provides a crucial habitat for a range of wildlife such as fungi, insects, bats, birds, and more. However, due to the nature of Hooke Park being both an ancient woodland and a managed one, it was revealed that the lack of natural features such as woodpecker holes and tree splits have affected the way in which bats inhabit the woodland. Bats are biodiversity indicators and are crucial for pollination, seed dispersal
and pest control. They are opportunistic mammals that do not build their own roosts. They rely on cracks, crevices and holes for shelter. With the lack of natural features, they have had to adapt by roosting within Hooke Park’s campus buildings. The relationship between bats and the Hooke Park’s architecture led to more questions about where bats choose to live within built structures, how they navigate and use the surrounding greenery. The study of the campus unravels an intricate system that seems to extend beyond Hooke Park itself. In fact, as more natural landscapes such as aged woodlands continue to disappear, ‘building-reliant species’ have been forced to migrate and adapt to man-made architecture in order to survive. So, how does man-made architecture today consider ‘building-reliant species’ and what more can be done to accommodate them?
Joyce Ka Kei Ng