Design for All Beings is a project where students are asked to choose one species to champion for a semester. To “champion” means that the student designs for this species and acts as a representative for their needs and place in the world. I chose to represent crows because they are well known Vancouver locals but are infamous for having bad relationships with people around the city through their scavenging habits. Most of this project was spent trying to create a relationship with the crows which proved harder then expected. I created a series of prototype perches which easily attached to my window and used them to establish a feeding, watering and general care ritual with the crows. Crows are very bold and do what they want without paying much attention to humans but as soon as you try to approach them with any sort of intention they become extremely suspicious. This is a relationship that we now have with most wild animals and after noticing this I set out to design something to rebuild the trust we have lost with the crows.

What I finally decided was that there are very few bird feeders or roosts for large birds and definitely none intended for crows which eventually led me to create Le Crowbusier which is a design that suggests we should be providing wild animals and other beings with the same luxury as we provide ourselves. It is the first piece in a line of luxury crow furniture inspired by modernist chairs which gives design a new directive and promotes trust building rituals with crows and other large birds.