The six ravens kept since time immemorial at the Tower of London are bound to British royalty to such an extent that legend has it that if these birds “are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it.”

Utmost care has therefore gone into the renovation of the traditional aviaries on the grounds of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, through a project that is part of a larger intervention meant to upgrade an entire historical enclave. The first step was to design the structure of the four conjoined cages, which is light and self-supporting, never at any moment depending on the loadbearing capacity of the historical walls. Then came the decision to prefabricate the stainless steel mesh and wood enclosures off site, a measure intended to avoid damage on the enclave while facilitating removal in the future. Finally, the lightness and the prefabrication were no barriers to the choosing of robust building materials that are easy to maintain, such as surface-treated hard-fiber oakwood...[+]