Habitat by Design: Birds, People, and Place, edited by Vicky Richardson, brings together leading voices from architecture, ecology, art, history, and science to explore the ever-changing relationship between people, birds, and the landscapes they share. Through essays, interviews, and visual narratives, the book expands on the themes of architecture and ecology, environmental thinking, and the coexistence of human and non-human species, while asking how design can restore and sustain habitats amidst rapid urbanisation.



The starting point for these reflections is the Wasit Wetland Centre in Sharjah by X Architects, the first project in the United Arab Emirates to receive the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Built on the site of a former landfill, Wasit has transformed a degraded landscape into a thriving wetland for resident and migratory birds while creating a place where people can reconnect with nature. Building on this transformation, the volume explores how nature and the human-made, often regarded as opposing realms, can be closely intertwined.



Habitat by Design offers a multidisciplinary perspective on the role of design in shaping more resilient environments and a more thoughtful relationship between birds, people, and place.



Foreword: Nature Matters



Farrokh Derakhshani







Introduction



Vicky Richardson







I. SETTING THE SCENE







Cycles of Wetland, Waste, and Renewal



Azza Aboualam







Wetlands as Living Infrastructure: Water, Biodiversity, and Environmental Change in Sharjah



Fatin Samara







II. CONVERSATIONS ABOUT CONTEXT







Vicky Richardson in Conversation with Ahmed Al Ali and Farid Esmaeil, X Architects







Indigenous Ideas: X Architects in Context



Kevin Mitchell







Architecture as Migration



Ahmed and Rashid bin Shabib







III. BIRDWATCHERS PLAY THEIR PART







Why the Connection of People, Data, and Place Is at the Heart of Bird Conservation



Andrew Farnsworth







Reflections of Birdwatchers







IV. AVIAN ARCHITECTURE







A Forest Bird Never Wants a Cage: Architecture for Other Species



Catherine du Toit







Architectural Camouflage at the Wasit Wetland Centre



Vicky Richardson







V. ANIMALS IN A HUMAN WORLD







Power and Vulnerability



Farah Al Qasimi







"But cats kill birds!": The Politics of Coexistence in Cities



Lucas Morin







Islamic Ecological Design: An Important Response to the Tenth-Century Allegory of Animals versus Humans by the Ikhwan al Safa



James L. Wescoat Jr.







VI. RETHINKING LANDSCAPE ON THE ARABIAN PENINSULA







Between Oasis and Wetland: Landscapes of Rupture and Care in the Gulf



Lulu Almana







Al-Lāndiskīb: Limits and Possibilities



Gareth Doherty