BirdHouse Cafe 2008
Paris, FR
Commissioner: Maison Rouge Fondation Antoine de Galbert
Birdhouse Café is a functional dining pavilion designed to occupy the central
open-air vitrine at Maison Rouge. Situated inside the glass courtyard the café is an elevated- six-sided screened pavilion which connects to the building and joins the inside and outside dining areas. Outside , between the pavilion and the museum walls, is a manufactured landscape of running water, trees, bushes and vines. The landscape is designed to provide a home for the community of birds which occupy the space for the summer months. The café situates ‘us’ (the diners) and ‘them’ (the birds) in what essentially is a cage within a cage . Upon entering, the diner is removed from the pace and sounds of urban life and transported into the tranquility of a natural environment.
