City of Beasts

Panel housing in Petržalka was a popular solution for many people to live in but the imperfections of the construction and its decay through decades provide the perfect living habitat for population of protected bats. In this case the facade is “the interface” for relationship with natural system through the animals we cohabit with. Cracks-people hate it, bats love it. Cracks are providing them the shelter by hiding in it. But the art of restoration of these houses nowadays destroys also the living spaces of bats by covering the cracks and crevices between the panels. The concept of cohabitation of animal and human is represented in the site-specific reconstruction of a panel house facade in the form of buffer structure hosting biodiversity and enhancing living conditions of inhabitants in the existing building. This book investigates the possibilities of the reconstruction and its influence on the diversification and gentrification in the future. The design proposal is about the enhancement of the current living conditions and preserving the structure of cracks in a new construction which should provide a new way of cohabitation for both human and bat.