Birdhouses in an Open-air Museum: Instigating Reflections Instigating Reflections

Abstract

Little buildings offering food and places for nesting to oscine birds in the garden or on the balcony are not just decorative architectural elements. They represent ideas of “good” gardening, of ecological behaviour and of nature protection. This contribution is based on a study in the open-air museum in Kommern, Germany. With an ethnographic perspective on space and material culture, and specifically on the birdhouses in the museum, it discusses representations of human–bird-relations in material culture.