Project Google Birdhouse: Google Maps Icon Inspired Birdhouses

The Google Maps icon is one of the most famous icons in the world. It’s instantly recognizable, and it has become a symbol of navigation and directions. When we see the Google Maps icon, we know we are close to our destination, or at least on the right track. Artist Shuchun Hsiao is apparently a big fan of Google Maps because he started a very creative and quite geeky ongoing endeavor called Project Google Birdhouse.

Project Google Birdhouse is all about putting Google Maps icon inspired birdhouses all over the city as a navigation and directions symbol to birds, and they’ll learn that when they see that icon, they are close to home. According to Shuchum, birds have the most real experience of Google Maps when they fly through the streets of a city. A birdhouse becomes their destination, as Google Maps and the Google Maps icon is for us.

This is obviously a wonderful way to help birds living in urban spaces, but it’s also a way to bring what is traditionally online into our offline lives. From a design perspective, we are seeing the lines between online and offline getting more and more blurry. As we continue to weave our online and offline lives together so they are in sync by using our mobile devices to stay in touch wherever we go, I’m sure this is a trend that will stick around for a while.

The next time you see that Google Maps icon, just know that somewhere else in the world, a family of birds might be living in a birdhouse that looks just like that. If you want to see more, you can click over to 12 Bird Nests In Unusual Places. In those pictures, you’ll see what happens to birds in urban spaces when there aren’t any (or enough) birdhouses. Nature adapts.