Designer apartments for pollinators generate buzz in Finnish City

The city of Lahti in Finland started their ‘Without Pollinators We Cannot Survive’ campaign by handing out seed packets of meadow plants and ‘I pollinate here’ yard signs to citizens. Now the city has installed design apartments for pollinators whose nesting sites have dwindled in numbers.

The pollinator apartments were designed by acclaimed interior architect and furniture designer Tapio Anttila, who is based in Lahti. Five unique design apartments were placed in Lahti’s scenic Mukkula Manor Park. The city of Lahti hopes that the apartments will inspire home gardeners to do their own part for pollinators. 

"These designer apartments are elegant examples of functional, yet natural design. On a large scale, however, our environment is too neat today", claims Hanna Mattila, project manager of the city of Lahti’s ‘Nature-positive Life’ project, and continues: “We need more controlled unkemptness, so that yards would have all kinds of nooks and crannies for insects and pollinators to live in.”

“Tree stumps are fantastic nesting sites for pollinators and insects! If you for example cut down a tree in your yard, you should leave the stump or even just a pile of twigs for them”, Mattila suggests.  

Functionalism and Avant Garde from The Frog’s Perspective 

When Tapio Anttila was asked by the city of Lahti to craft designer apartments for pollinators, he couldn’t help but smile. Anttila, known as an interior architect and furniture designer, has received numerous accolades, such as the Kaj Franck Design Prize in 2018, multiple Good Design Awards, and the Top Designer Award in 2017. He has designed items for many demographics including pets, but insects were a completely new experience. The project lasted a little over a month and proved to be extremely rewarding. 

“I’ve always been the kind of designer that just rushes into things if I get excited”, he laughs. “I was able to really let myself loose with this project. It was kind of therapeutic.” 

Anttila explains that usually he starts projects by drafting and then moves quickly into 3D modeling, but this special project was run as a workshop, which reminds of musicians’ jam sessions. There’s very little preparation and the process goes by feel with materials in the forefront. 

The naturalistic design of the apartments blends rough materials like tree bark with different architectual trends. Anttila says that every apartment draws inspiration from different sources, such as the clean-lined “Nest for Pollinators Who Are Fans of Functionalism” and the Le Corbusier-inspired “Abode for Avant Garde-Appreciating Creatures.”

In addition to the process and materials, Anttila says the placement of the apartments provided an additional challenge. Even though the apartments are made for pollinators, humans still had to be accounted for: “The viewing angle of an object is extremely important. You look at a chair from above, but these apartments should look good when viewed from below, from the frog’s perspective.”

Seed Packet and Yard Sign Give-Aways Off to A Flying Start

The meadow seed packet giveaway kick-started the city of Lahti’s ‘Without Pollinators We Cannot Survive’ project on World Environment Day, June 5th. Out of the 10 000 seed packets produced, half have already been given out to residents in Lahti. The city continued the campaign by producing 100 ‘I pollinate here’ yard signs, which were all given out in half an hour on June 18th. 

In addition to apartments, yard signs and seed packets the city of Lahti will install pollinator-friendly outdoor lighting and organize a ‘Night of the Pollinators’ to encourage citizens to turn off their unnecessary outdoor lighting.

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