British Land and the City of London Corporation challenged architects to design five-star hotels for insects in the Beyond the Hive competition.
The competition, which was organised to celebrate 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity and coincides with this year's London Festival of Architecture, saw five shortlisted entries built across the City of London's public gardens.
The Beevarian Antsel and Gretel Chalet, designed by the German Women in Property, won the public vote. Designed to resemble an alpine chalet, the three-storey hotel features a balcony filled with soil for insect-friendly plants and flooring of reclaimed brick to attract bees, as well as rotten logs for invertebrates, louvered boxes filled with bark for butterflies, a log drilled with holes for ladybirds and eaves filled with bamboo for lacewings. Located at Cleary Garden in EC4, the two-feet high Chalet is made entirely from materials collected within the City.
One of the German Women in Property, Ingeborg Warschke, commented: “Our insect hotel was built at virtually no cost using simple tools, by fairly inexperienced people — in our case a banker and two accountants. This shows that an attractive, sustainable insect hotel can be built by anyone, anywhere.” Ingeborg added: “It has already proved to be an example to others, with the eight-year-old step granddaughter of one of the women builders building Bugginham Palace at her school, making tiny posters to advertise it to insects. This is a child who used to hate creepy crawlies!”
The Chalet is one of five luxury insect hotels shortlisted by judges and then built in the City’s public gardens to coincide with this year’s London Festival of Architecture and to celebrate 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. Almost a thousand people voted for their favourite entry, with many more visiting the hotels, which were designed to attract beetles, bees, butterflies, spiders, lacewings and ladybirds.
The judges’ award was won by Arup Associates for the Insect Hotel at St Dunstan’s in the East in EC4. The façade of the hotel resembles honeycomb and is based on a Voronoi pattern, which, in nature, appears in the structure of a dragonfly’s wing. Each compartment contains recycled waste materials and deadfall that cater for the needs of beetles, bees, spiders, lacewings and ladybirds. Butterflies and moths can enter the hotel through the sides, whilst the top can absorb rainwater through planting.
Beevarian Anstel and Gretel chalet
Sustainable Developments Executive at British Land, Sarah Cary, explained the rationale behind the competition: “Over the last few years, English gardens have been too well kept and parks in London are struggling to maintain their insect population. Native flora and fauna are already starting to suffer the consequences of this. This competition was a creative way to raise awareness of this important biodiversity issue. It is a fun part of our ongoing efforts to encourage biodiversity in the built environment.”
The other three shortlisted hotels were:
- Brookfield Bug Buddies in Postman’ Park, by Brookfield Europe and the Pinnacle team
- Bumblebee City Nesters in West Smithfield, by Fisher Tomlin
- Inn Vertebrate in Bunhill Fields, by Metalanguage Design.
The judging panel comprised Paul Finch, Chairman of CABE and the Government’s advisor on architecture, urban design and public space; Sarah Henshall, Brownfield Officer at Buglife; Adrian Penfold, Head of Planning and Environment at British Land; Graham Stirk, Director at Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners; and Peter Wynne Rees, City Planning Officer at City of London Corporation.
