Bees Are Checking In At Kew’s New Pollinator Hotel
Bee Hotel at Kew Gardens, Wakehurst UK. Credit: Kristina Pulejkova
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Millennium Seed Bank, the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew Gardens Wakehurst) has combined art, conservation and science in a summer exhibit, ‘Seedscapes’. Artist Kristina Pulejkova designed four pollinator hotels to capture pollen and encourage bees to take refuge in times of extreme heat.
Titled ‘Seed Stories’, the four bee hotels are painted different colours to attract bees. Researchers are able to collect the pollen left behind in the hotels, facilitating the study of which species are attracted to specific tree types.
Visitors can interact with the installations via an augmented reality app to learn about a plant species from the seed bank. The artist hopes to facilitate ongoing scientific research and conservation while raising awareness of the importance of pollinators, biodiversity, conservation and the environment.
The Millenium Seedbank at Kew Wakehurst is the world’s largest underground seed bank and conservation resource for diverse wild plant species.
Six artists have contributed to the Seedscapes exhibition including Australian James Tapscott, with an immersive installation inspired by the Silver Birch Seed, titled ‘Betula Loop’.
Regenerative Design as a Response to the Water Crisis in Mexico
Reserva Peñitas Credit: Emilio Espinosat
What was once an over exploited, compacted and water drained area now supplies 27% of Mexico City’s water – reports Francisco Brown for Metropolis Magazine.
Water is the central element of the Reserva Peñitas. Located in Valle de Bravo (State of Mexico), just a few hours from the nation’s capital, the Reserve is a cooperative community. Founded in 2009, its mission was to restore and develop 200 hectares of land severely degraded by overgrazing. Now, the Reserve combines conservation with low-density housing, sheltered behind living fences.
A team of landscape architects, architects, biologists, agronomists and forestry engineers restored 70 hectares of forest and 25 hectares of grassland. The project has employed dozens of families with the number of migratory birds visiting the Reserve quadrupling in the last decade.
Today 80 families live in the pristine, diverse landscape surrounded by meadows with flowers, fruit trees and orchards. Dense pine and oak forests are interspersed with lagoons and rivers.
Street Furniture Australia’s entire product range and manufacturing operation has received carbon neutral certification through Climate Active™. Achieving carbon neutral certification marks a significant milestone in our operation and the culmination of a four year long process of detailed measurement and analysis. Climate Active™ is the only Australian government-backed carbon neutral certification programme for businesses to measure, reduce, and offsets their carbon emissions. It is one of the most rigorous carbon-neutral programs in the world. An approved Emissions Reduction Strategy (ERS) is central to achieving certification through Climate Active. Street Furniture Australia has elected to use SBTi validated science-based targets to ensure their ERS is meaningful and aligns with the 2015 Paris Agreement – to limit global temperature rises to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels. For those emissions that can’t be …
Linea Bin is the newest addition to Street Furniture Australia’s minimalist Linea range. Built from stainless steel for strength, durability and a refined aesthetic, it has been thoughtfully designed with input from landscape architects and waste managers to deliver hygiene, accessibility and sustainability in the public realm. Built to LastA robust stainless steel frame and panel system ensures Linea Bin performs in high-traffic environments. A full-height stainless steel 316 piano hinge and splash tray provide exceptional strength, hygiene and corrosion resistance, withstanding daily impacts from trolleys and cleaning equipment. “Durability was paramount,” says Pearson Bulmer, Senior Industrial Designer at Street Furniture Australia. “Every detail needed to perform in the public realm for years to come – but also be designed for disassembly so parts can be repaired, replaced or recycled …
With the look and feel of natural timber, backed by 12 months of performance testing for the public realm, engineered wood joins Street Furniture Australia’s selection of batten materials. Designers and place custodians can now choose from three batten options to achieve a timber look: natural Spotted Gum hardwood, low maintenance aluminium Wood Without Worry, and engineered wood known as Onewood HRT. See our Engineered Wood: Onewood HRT brochure or book a presentation. What is engineered wood?Onewood HRT (Homogeneous Reconstituted Timber) is a solid engineered timber, made from fast-growing FSC certified poplar and eucalyptus fibres that are compressed under heat and pressure with a resin binder. It is solid throughout with an organic grain and, like real hardwood, can be sanded to refresh. Street Furniture Australia partners with a Singapore-based …
