Bug Motel Pollinator Residencies

watertown, ma

Working with local ecological artist, David Buckley Borden, and a team consisting of Interior Designers, Architects, Ecologists, and landscape architects, this collaboration birthed the “Bug Motels”. Set on the Charles River in the pollinator garden of Sasaki Associates, this project aimed to not only raise awareness of the importance of pollinators to the ecology of this planet, but also served as real and useful spaces where pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and other bugs could seek refuge from the elements. Over the course of David’s three month residency, this team designed and built these bug motels utilizing found and reclaimed materials from the Harvard Forest. Inspired by the idea of creating a real “residence” for these pollinators, each structure was modeled after a different type of building typology: a Hong Kong Residential Tower, an old mill turned “bee work” office space, and a broken down roadside motel. Each residency is sitting atop custom built pedestals inspired by abstract soil profiles and CAD hatch marks. The team was able to utilize these exact patterns by etching and cutting into the wood with laser cutting and CNC technology.