Macaw Flight

Floating design — careful groundworks due to location

Not every site gives you a clean sheet of paper, and this one certainly did not. The location placed real constraints on what could be dug, loaded and disturbed, which is how this generous macaw flight came to be built as a floating structure.

Rather than driving deep foundations into sensitive ground, the aviary sits on a carefully calculated distributed load, spreading weight across the site instead of punching through it. That decision protected everything below and around it while allowing us to deliver the thing that actually matters to the birds: height, span and genuine flight lines.

Macaws are powerful, intelligent, long-lived and easily bored, so the internal design received just as much attention as the engineering. Perching varies in diameter, texture and springiness to keep feet healthy. Flight runs are long enough for real wing use rather than a token flap. Browse points, chew stations and shaded retreats give the birds meaningful choice throughout the day, and keeper access was planned to be safe, quick and low-stress for everyone involved.

The finished flight is robust, weather-resilient and, pleasingly, was built with minimal disruption to its surroundings.

We are fond of this project because it demonstrates something important: awkward sites are not a reason to compromise on welfare. With the right survey work and a bit of lateral thinking, difficult ground can still deliver an excellent home.

If your site has a corner you have written off as unbuildable, let us take a proper look.