Kittiwakes

2023 to · mobile nesting structures, Muséparken / Tromsø · with Tromsø kommune, NINA, AT Arkitektur, Lawrence Malstaf, Tromsø Kunstforening

By its second season the green hotel held roughly forty nests. Grundvåg installed that mobile nesting structure in Muséparken in 2023 as part of ongoing work on artificial nesting architecture for black legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla), endangered seabirds that have moved into Tromsø’s centre as climate refugees, nesting on façades and creating conflict with building use and repair.

With Tromsø municipality, NINA researchers, AT Arkitektur (Kjeld Nash), artist Lawrence Malstaf, and Tromsø Kunstforening, mobile “kittiwake hotels” were developed as tripod mounted nesting modules that can be placed near former colony sites and later moved farther into Muséparken.

Related exhibition work includes co curating I Love Seagulls! / Jeg elsker måser! at Tromsø Kunstforening (2023) with Camilla Fagerli, which gathered artistic and scientific responses to living with the birds (listed on the CV as I … Seagulls). This page documents the nesting structures themselves as a distinct project.

Green kittiwake hotel with nesting birds, Tromsø / Muséparken

Kittiwake hotel overview with Krykkja Park Hotell sign

Kittiwakes nesting on constructed ledges. Photo via Coast Contemporary