Thought that high rise living was just for humans? Well, think again, because toucan play at that game. The city of Rijeka has just opened its first bird skyscraper, with the new accommodation offering a veritable Duckingham Palace for our feathered friends.
Standing within a skyline famously littered with tower blocks, the structure is actually a permanent art installation made by famous Belgrade-based multimedia artist Vladimir Perić Talent (pictured above). It was commissioned by Rijeka's Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art for the city's 2020 year as European Capital of Culture.
© Rijeka 2020
The 11-metre tall wood and metal structure has 20 floors of accommodation, with eight separate apartments on each floor. Maths is not the strongest asset of this particular Time Out Croatia writer, but luckily we don't need to employ owlgebra in order to determine that makes 160 apartments in total.
Some may have though the museum and artist must be stork raven mad to begin such a grand scheme, however, Perić is no fledgling when it comes to these structures. This latest feather in his cap follows a seven-metre-high bird skyscraper he built in Austria in 2003. With this new addition, in one fowl swoop he has become one of the world's leading bird building architects.
© Rijeka 2020
Like much of Rijeka's 2020 European Capital of Culture programme, the scheme has been warmly embraced by Rijeka residents and new arrivals to the bird skyscraper can expect great tweetment from their neighbours. The tower block stands next to a yoga centre, so new residents can perhaps join in with the eggsercise rather than just staying home, watching favourite movies like 'Lord of the Wings'
There is no pecking order in which birds can move into the new building, for now it's a free-for-owl. Kvarner residents who notice young female birds suddenly flying the coop from local nests should not be concerned. With the addition of this plush, new tower block, it's safe to assume she's probably just moved into heron place now.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Despite the wide and sorrowing use of bird puns employed by our writer in this news story, it should be made clear that Rijeka's bird skyscraper is in fact intended for use only by small birds, such as sparrows. We would like to assure any groaning readers that the unnecessary use of so many puns in one simple story causes all of us at Time Out Croatia no small amount of egret.