51 Architecture creates timber roost for Royal Academy summer exhibition

London-based studio 51 Architecture has created a space for woodland creatures to rest, roost, perch and shelter at this year's Royal Academy summer exhibition.

Installed within the Lovelace Courtyard for the annual exhibition at Burlington House, the six-metre-tall structure was designed by 51 Architecture to explore ways of integrating nesting space into architectural design and address dwindling biodiversity.

The shelter, which is named Hrōst after the origin of the English word 'roost', was conceptualised by the studio as a multi-species "proxy barn" hosting space for animals, insects and humans.

"Hrōst is a proxy barn – an architecture for other species for deployment in landscapes where nature is threatened by, or recovering from, over-intensive land use," studio co-founder Catherine du Toit told Dezeen.

"As newer buildings have become better sealed and smoother surfaced, we've left fewer opportunities for nesting," the studio added.

The shelter was built from a demountable wooden frame, which comprises a series of timber cassettes packed with wool insulation to reduce solar gain.

Rising from a square base, the roost's frame tapers inwards towards its top and is crowned with a timber roof with large overhanging eaves that offer shelter for migrating birds or wasps.

Externally, 51 Architecture cloaked the structure with perforated featheredge cladding to attract bees, butterflies and other invertebrates. Its raised structure, which is perched on four foundations, also serves to create a place of refuge – or hibernaculum – for animals beneath it.

Built into the structure's facades are a series of hollows in a variety of sizes as well as crevices for bats and owls, while a woodpile at its base is intended to attract reptiles, amphibians and hedgehogs.

Additionally, an opening at the shelter's base allows people to access an interior space in order to monitor and clean the habitats from the inside.

Hrōst will be on show in the Lovelace Courtyard until 17 August. It forms part of this year's Royal Academy summer exhibition, which has been curated by architect Farshid Moussavi.

Other projects designed for animals and insects include a tree-like water tower in Luxembourg that provides shelter for nesting birds and bats and "highly functional" bird feeders designed to reduce disease transmission.

The photography is courtesy of 51 Architecture.

The RA Summer Exhibition 2025 takes place from 17 June to 17 August 2025. See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest information you need to know to attend the event, as well as a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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