Pigeon Fertilizing Tower

Enlarge

Guano, or rather bird shit, was a highly valued fertiliser among the Incas of South America. Most of it was scooped up from small dry islands near the coast. Disturbing sea birds, and therefore disturbing the production of bird shit, was punishable by death. That's how serious they took their fertiliser. And perhaps today we should start taking our fertiliser serious again. World stock in several important ingredients of fertilisers, like phosphor, is running out.

It wasn't until the 19th century when the Prussian explorer Alexander von Humboldt reported on its effectiveness that guano became a global product which fetched high prices. In 1840 the first shipment of Peruvian guano arrived in London. 182 tons of it was shipped there in the next 2 years. 20 years later that has risen to 435.000 tons annually. America wanted a piece of the action and in 1855 founded the American Guano Company in 1855. They expected to make 2,5 million profit a year. Other companies wanted in and Congress facilitated this by enacting the Guano Island Act allowing US citizens to claim islands containing guano for the United States. This was the first time the US attempted to annex overseas territories. The Guano Islands. All this time in Iran they made sure they'd get enough guano by erecting industrially scaled pigeon towers. By giving large quantities of pigeons a nice place to live, eat, breed and shit in a designated area they were able to produce enough fertiliser to cover most of their guano needs.

Unfortunately nowadays most people consider pigeons to be a nuisance. Perhaps we should reconsider. Pigeons are loved by tourists and bring spectacle and dynamism to the cityscape. They also help clean the city by eating food that's been discarded on the streets. If they could also produce fertiliser, for example for urban farming projects, their status will grow and (much like bees proceeding honey) enter into a highly valued relationship with man. In order to do so I will add a prototype pigeon tower to the Freezing Favella build from recycled paper briquettes.

Lots and lots of newspapers to make paper briquettes.

Helping hands to collect newspapers and make paper briquettes from them. Also later I will need helping hands to build up the tower.