Buildings are becoming denser, facades smoother, details reduced. What makes sense from an energetical point of view has a side effect: niches and cavities that have served as nesting sites for building breeders for decades are disappearing from the cityscape. Biodiversity is thus becoming a question of building construction and a planning task that is best solved in detail.
Scotland has translated this development into a clear signal: nesting aids in new buildings should no longer be left to chance, but should become standard. This is an interesting impetus for German planning practice – especially where façades have to meet high design standards.
Scotland sets a standard: nesting aids to become mandatory in new buildings
At the end of January 2026, the Scottish Parliament created a legal basis within the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill that will make the integration of so-called ‘swift bricks’ – integrated nesting aids – mandatory in new buildings. A consultation phase of around twelve months is planned before the requirements are transferred to the Scottish Building Standards and are expected to come into effect from 2027. The approach targets building breeders such as swifts, but also other cavity-nesting species that are finding it increasingly difficult to find suitable breeding sites in modern, densely built-up building envelopes.
Why mandatory nesting aids are more than just symbolic politics
The idea is pragmatic: a small, standardisable component is integrated into the planning at an early stage and can thus have a widespread impact. The background to this is declining populations of building-nesting birds and the loss of suitable nesting sites due to renovation and dense new building envelopes. Species protection in buildings rarely fails due to a lack of will, but more often due to late discoveries, tight schedules or details that cannot be properly integrated retrospectively. Scotland is thus shifting species protection from a project-related individual case to a standard detail, while at the same time creating planning security for builders, developers and contractors.
Prohibition of destruction – but no general obligation to rebuild
In Germany, the legal framework is clear: according to Section 44 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act, it is prohibited to damage or destroy the breeding sites or resting places of specially protected species. In practice, this is particularly relevant for renovations, roof and façade work, and demolition. Whether and which measures are necessary often depends on the location, the inventory evidence, and the intensity of the intervention, and is regulated by species protection assessments and ancillary provisions.
For new buildings, however, this means that if no protected nesting or resting places are affected before the start of the project, there is often no obligation to integrate new nesting aids. New buildings can therefore be planned in a ‘species-neutral’ manner, even though they are increasingly replacing the typical breeding structures of existing buildings in urban areas – this is precisely where the difference to Scotland lies.
Why retrofitting is so common in Germany
The fact that nesting aids in Germany are often only considered after the fact is rarely due to ill will. In most cases, it is a process problem.
In many projects, species protection only becomes binding when the species protection assessment in the approval process provides concrete evidence. If this assessment is commissioned late or if existing nesting sites are only identified late, short-term requirements arise with little leeway for clean façade details.
In addition, in early design phases, in competitions or when schedules are tight, biodiversity in buildings is not always seen as part of the mandatory programme. The topic is then missing from the briefing, the budget and the detailed concept, and the solution becomes a retrofit.
If species are to be preserved, habitats must be actively designed – especially where new densification, conversion and redensification are taking place. Simply ‘not destroying’ is no longer enough.
Nesting aids in new buildings are not a major intervention, but a small, effective detail. Above all, they send a signal: new buildings can not only cause less damage, but also make a measurable contribution.
Nesting clinker bricks from Hagemeister: species protection that blends into the façade
Details are crucial, especially when it comes to clinker brick façades. In many façade designs, attached boxes look out of place – they disrupt the material logic, bond pattern and joint pattern, and are therefore quickly recognisable as an afterthought.
With its nesting clinker bricks, Hagemeister offers an integrated solution for clinker buildings:
nesting modules made of clay that are integrated into the masonry and thus blend in with the material and façade.
The decisive advantage lies in the system: the nesting aid is not added on, but is planned as a component of the building.
Arguments for builders and planning teams
- Design integrity: Material homogeneity, bonding and jointing remain intact – the nesting aid becomes part of the façade detail.
- Durability: Mineral, weather-resistant solution without additional fastening systems and without foreign materials on the façade.
- Planning reliability: Standardised detail that can be anchored early on in the tendering and execution process, making requirements easier to plan.
- Sustainability with added value: Biodiversity becomes visible as a quality criterion of the building envelope without compromising the architectural approach.
Conclusion
Scotland shows how quickly species protection can become standard in new buildings when it is consistently translated into rules and details. In Germany, the law primarily protects against destruction, but without a new building requirement, it does not create comparable consistency. If nesting aids are to be included in every new building, nesting bricks for brick facades offer a way to incorporate biodiversity in a material-appropriate and aesthetically pleasing manner.
If you would like to delve deeper into the subject, our white paper ‘Nesting Bricks’ provides background information, planning principles and arguments for practical application.
Sources
Scotland becomes first UK country to put Swift bricks into law