“Insects, worms, and other small animals that carry out vital functions for life on earth have declined by 45 percent average over 35 years, threatening human, water quality and food supplies…”
– Steve Connor, “Vital invertebrates decline 45 percent, study finds,” independent.co.uk, July 2014
My concept for my bug hotel design stems from pyramids, and using multiples of them attached to each other by face to create large geometric forms. I want to create something that is visually starkly different from most things you’d see in nature. I want my form to be very concise and geometric- however I want to present it and form it in a way that it looks like it could perhaps be a living thing of it’s own kind.
As of now I’m thinking this bug hotel will best accommodate creatures like: beetles, centipedes, spiders, mice and the various small bugs and ground creatures. I’m also considering planting nectar rich flows to attract butterflies, bees and some other flying insects. I envision this bug hotel on the ground.
I want this bug hotel to mainly accommodate Beetles, centipedes, spiders and woodlice, using dead wood and bark.
I like my end result, but for me the assembling of the project was mostly improvised in the moment. I thought I could make a bunch of small pyramids using chromatic pieces, but making the chromatic triangle with the correct angles was to involved for me, so I looked at the wood I had, and the pieces I had already cut for my original idea based on multiple pyramids and made something functional. I wanted to create a fully functional bug hotel. I would hope that if I saw this bug hotel in nature I could shake all the stuff out (not that I would actually do this) and find a bunch of bugs. I wanted to create a form that was perhaps looked like a living creature, but also definitely wasn’t. I tried to make a bug hotel that didn’t look like a typical bug hotel, I wanted something that didn’t look like it functioned for anything — but upon looking closely at it, it does. I wanted something that juxtaposed typical visuals in nature, so a passerby would be more likely to see it and be curious about it.