One for the birds

Buildings have an impact on their environment, but taking into account a more literal impact and designing solutions for it has made us fans of Arnold Glas.
.
Hundreds of millions of birds die annually, by some estimates, from hitting glass windows. There are many methods for making glass less hazardous to birds but most typically involve reducing or breaking up the reflection so birds recognize windows as a barrier.

Two bird strikes yesterday on the building where Tricycle calls home had tragic results for the birds. Today another one collided with an upper floor window, but after an hour of stunned immobility-- and several trips outside to check on it-- the bird was able to fly away.

That got us thinking about a product we first heard about on Treehugger. A German company, Arnold Glas, recently won an international design award for Ornilux, a bird-friendly glass based on principles copied from spider webs. Utilizing the fact that birds see light differently than humans, the glass reveals a criss-crossed design to oncoming birds that isn't visible to people.

We like the animal-friendly thinking from Ornilux and we love the bio-mimicry aspect of the design.