Wildlife Pods: Public Art Project, Commissioned by Stonewater, produced by ‘a space’ arts

The ridged and textured beauty of wildflower seedheads inspired our Wildlife Pods. Using original watercolour drawings of seedheads as our starting point, we stripped back and simplified their natural forms, transforming them into sculptural three-dimensional pods.

Carved from English oak sourced within 5 miles of our Dorset studio, each pod contains space for birds to nest and creatures to shelter. When colonised, the sculptures will become vessels for new life; cradles of growth and new beginnings, just like the seedheads they’re modelled on.

Functionality was a key focus in our design process. Each nesting pod is split in half and rough carved, before being hollowed out by hand to make a nesting space that follows RSPB guidelines. The halves are fixed together and mounted on fabricated stem poles, with every nest entrance at least two metres off the ground so predators can’t gain entry. The locally sourced oak is naturally long lasting and will weather to a lovely silver-grey – an appropriate complement to its surroundings.

The Wildlife Pods were commissioned for a wildflower bank as part of a new affordable housing scheme in Winterbourne Abbas in Dorset. They demonstrate Denman+Gould’s focus on making public work that brings a new perspective to immediate and familiar surroundings, celebrating what a specific community has to offer and honouring the strands that knit it together. 

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