The Turks and earlier the Ottomans have a rich tradition for pottery and ceramics. Go travelling to Turkey and you will be either be taken to a dozen pottery factories or a dozen shops to buy a carpet. Going back from ancient Ottoman traditions of building mansions for birds, a tile factory Hitit Terra in Turkey had a new idea: turn some of the tiles for roofs into nesting boxes for birds.
Enjoy the pictures below, along with some older renditions of Turkish bird houses.
Before you buy however, read the comments from an experienced bird house builder who claims the opening of the house along with the stick is like a snack dispensary for birds. The openings need to be narrow enough for certain species of birds to enter, but not too wide that predators can get in. We also suspect that with warming climates, best be advised to put them on the roof slope away from the sun.
All handmade things, including these Tunisian tiles risk disappearing forever, along with the birds. Let’s support and do handmade so we can keep our humanity and human scale in the built world.
Image credits of 3 images above: canercangul
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]
