The Pollinators Pavilion: building for multiple species
The decline of pollinators poses a major threat to the global agricultural food supply, yet while honeybee decline is well documented, 90% of the planet’s bees are native bees, responsible for 75% of non-agricultural pollination globally. Honeyless, hiveless and largely stingerless, these primary pollinators provide a vital ecosystem service yet remain poorly understood: their discreet dwelling and great diversity make them hard to identify and much of the scientific data describing these species is deemed “data-deficient”, indicating insufficient information to be able to assess the conservation status of these bees. The Pollinators Pavilion seeks to address this gap by bringing architecture, machine learning technology and conservation ecology together to prototype an analogous habitat / field station for solitary bees. The first of several stations commissioned by Stone House Farms is built and located at Old Mud Creek Farm (67 Pinewood Road, Hudson NY 12534); field studies will start in spring 2020 backed by Microsoft’s AI for Earth program.
ARIANE LOURIE HARRISON, RA, AIA is a co-founder of Harrison Atelier, a registered architect in New York State and she currently is the Coordinator of the Masters of Science in Architecture and Urban Design programs at the Graduate School of Architecture, Pratt Institute. Her projects and writing explore the concepts and realities of making architecture for multiple species, from her anthology Architectural Theories of the Environment: Posthuman Territory (Routledge, 2013) to built works such as the Species Walls and Pollinators Pavilions.