Ross Houston

After brainstorming products sold in a garden center, I came to the conclusion that I would go a garden ornament or piece of furniture as I could easily manufacture it with the equipment I had at both home and school. Also inspiration came from an oversized gate post we had in the garden of my family home. It was originally left long as we had joked about carving it in to a totem pole.

My solution to the brief was a dove cote that could be mounted on the top of our gate post. The unique characteristic was that I would manufacture it in a modular form, so that all pieces could be mass produced. The roof would be one section and each tier would be another. This meant the customer would purchase the roof section and then as many tiers as they required. The major benefit of this, is that storage of the sections would be easier for the stockist and the units could be handled by one person.

Further benefits to this design was that each door led into a divided compartment of suitable size for 3 birds. This was thought to give enough space for the birds to move around inside. From top to bottom: The finial is turned from yew, this sits on top of a lead capping, over felt roofing tiles, on a roof structure constructed from pine and marine ply wood. The tiers are marine ply wood top and bottom, with marine ply wood dividers, and pine ship lap wood outer skin with pine internal ribs. The base Bracket is made from 4mm sheet steel which has been painted or galvanized.

Here you can see the roof section, with handling frame, and the separate tiers in the background. The handling frame was made to aid construction and avoid damage to the roof tile when assembling.

I made each of the components with mass production in mind. All side walls were made the same way, using jigs, and those sides with the openings were cut afterwards. The bases were made to a size to both suit the size of a bird but also utilize the available material from a 8' x 4' sheet of ply. The off cuts from the octagonal shape were also used as the roof supports to give the pitch meaning as little wood as possible was wasted from commercially available sheets and lengths.

The sections interlocked together and were bolted using stainless steel fixings so that they would last in all weather conditions. This interlock design aided construction but also helped with weatherproofing of the unit.

This project was a success and earned me an "A" in my technology GCSE. The piece is still standing today in my garden, 13 years later. I has been repainted twice and moved to another post in that time. It has also been inhabited 12 of the 13 years it has been up.