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Car&Yacht Designer-Designed Birdhouses | |||
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Martin Francis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Martin Francis was born in England and has lived in France for the last 20 years. He studied Industrial Design at the Central School of Ard and Design in London, and subsequently taught Architecture and Industrial design at the Architecture Association. Working with Anthony Hunt in 1967 he went on to collaborate with Sir Norman Foster for 20 years. During this same time he was involved in the Modern Art Glass Warehouse in Nomos system of office furniture and Stansted Airport project. He also worked with Barry Gassonon on the award-winning museum to house the Burrell Collection in Scotland. In 1979, Martin Francis began his second career as a naval architect in Antibes, France. Early work included four of the world's largest sloops built at the time, including Concorde and Diablasse. More recently he has worked on motor yachts, notably M.Y. Eco, re-christened Katana, a high-speed gas turbine motor yacht at the cutting edge of motor yacht design. He also created RFR together with Peter Rice in 1981, President of the Conseil de Surveillance of RFR. They acted as consultant to the architect I.M. Pei on La Pyramide du Louvre in Paris. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
It is everyone's dream to travel the oceans in search of new cultures, new scents, colors and sounds. My birdhouse wants to provide an open environment for all to travel across the oceans, floating adrift to winds and currents. An environment for all to layback, observe and enjoy their surroundings in comfort and safety, but also an environment for travellers to rest and relax before continuing on to farther destinations. A protected yet open space to truly reflect on the essence of our environment, who we are, and where we belong in the complex surroundings we interrelate with every day. It is from these thoughts that I elaborated the idea of a floating platform driven solely by waves, winds and currents, in all simplicity. I wished to create a space to travel across the oceans, with the concern of providing comfort and protection to the traveller against the elements when necessary. And yet whilst doing so we needed to be careful not to loose sight of our aim to travel in, with, and alongside nature. Not as distant observers enclosed in a protective shell, but to travel the oceans in true harmony and complicity with nature, in peace and serenity. The entrance and exit are one open space, always protected from the wind yet always open to those wishing to rest or enjoy the peace and traquillity of this alcove. It was important to me to have a direct yet sheltered interface between the birdhouse's inner and outer environment. This is achieved naturally through the fundamental shape of the birdhouse, somewhat reminiscent of a pecan's beck. Indeed, the birdhouse self-aligns naturally to the wind, a feature held inherently within its design, whatever the wind direction. This is not only acertain mark of humility towards the strength of ocean winds, but actually is the best way of living with wind when its strength becomes menacing. Thus the entrance and exit to the birdhouse, one unique entity represent a completely sheltered space as well as one completely open space. Strong and turbulent wind is a source of potential discomfort of the traveller, a close-nit netting effectively breaks wind and filters out turbulence, leaving the inner space of the birdhouse with a smooth and gentle stream, however violent the winds on the outside. We realize that protection against the elements in oceanic environments is clearly of the essence, and waves often are a source of concern, shaking or even tumbling embarkation's as they sweep by. Another inherent feature of the birdhouse design is to provide the structure with a very small waterplane area. This in effect renders the platfrom practically immune to the action of the waves, guaranteeing a smooth voyage for all its occupants, pretty much whatever the sea conditions may be! What can the birdhouse teach us about our environment and about ourselves? We have here a space, in many ways very intimately linked with nature in its behaviour, through its proximity and through its motions, taking to the wind's direction or following the sea's currents. This space created from a very simple assembly manages to provide security and comfort to its residents by working with the wind, with the waves, with the currents: indeed, with its environment, with humility and intelligence. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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