Shed of the year 2024, Sponsored by 
This was my Lockdown Project 2020 and commenced 4th October. When I first left school I took worked and studied as a carpenter and my studies lead me onto other opportunities and I left the days of working with my hands behind and went onto surveying and then my own practice. But the knowledge and love of working with wood never leaves and the possibility of constructing a garden building myself was a seed sown by my wife, Linda. Thank you Linda for your support throughout.The Bird Box was planned and has turned out to be a shelter from the home (although only 15 steps away!) and helps to connect anyone using it with the garden space and a small piece of our local nature and environment. It can be used for work, reading, reflection, talking and listening and is best appreciated with an open mind, great friends, people that matter to you and a glass of wine!No, it was not constructed for a specific purpose but built for anyone using it to create a space special to them. So with with windows or wall open, with or without a fire, siting inside or out you create a space that is special to you at that moment. I believe that is what buildings are about but they cannot come to life without being used and this philosophy applies to sheds, offices and industrial units. I was also keen to consider what it would be constructed of. So everything you seen inside is either reclaimed, re-used or recycled. The flooring came from an old school. The roof timbers are discarded scaffold boards. the joists are recycled floor joists. All windows and doors are second hand. And the walls are made from pallet wood from a local charity. The beauty comes together from the time and effort in taking each board or timber and carefully taking off the dirt and dust and through care, and application of some love, the wood will show you its colour and grain that has taken years to develop. The timber joists had probably not seen the light of day for years and yet the chestnut colours are stunning and sometimes you just want to stare at the patterns in them.The Bird Box is special to us as it is our efforts and love that created it. And yes, ! would do it again. Even through another dark wet muddy winter!
The idea of the Bird Box came from an idea to build into the walls a space for nature and specifically birds. We could have easily tagged on one or two bird bird boxes on the outside. But who wants easy?So we have built within the walls three individual boxes. And after searching what birds are looking for in their homes we now know what attracts which type of bird. And as we live in the leafy suburbs of Wokingham an eagles Eyre was never going to work. And so we await feedback from the local Robin and Blue Tit community and we look forward to their sharing this space with us.
