Bat habitats and accompanying education facilities in the context of the London Wetland Centre, Battersea: a family of structures, journeys, and rituals.

One bat house sits like a totem in the lagoon, out of reach, a marker in the landscape, a belfry.

The other is tucked into the planted landscape and shelters a rammed earth cave. Formally similar, the two structures provide a contrasting range of interior atmospheres for bat dwelling.

The visitor centre sits just off the pathway between the two. A rammed earth and latticed timber structure, it nestles in the bund just clear of the river wall. A canopy drawing upon the structure of a bats wing frames views across the lagoon. At the heart of the building is a room which provides a tactile and sensory evocation of the way bats live. This room is a receiver of various digital feeds from the apparently mute bat houses- motion-sensitive, time-delayed sound & vision.

When appropriate, a sound-proof screen provides a window, a direct experience, onto the land-born bat house, the darkness of the room having already allowed visitors’ eyes to acclimatise to the gloom.