My non-human neighbor

How can we take our non-human neighbors into account when designing our cities?

This project is now archived and was part of DDW22

This project is part of
New place for all species in Strijp-S

Building prototypes based on observations

Iris Bekkers

When designing a building, people are considered future occupants or users. While there are already many smaller living beings and organisms in that place. Observing closely and taking those other inhabitants into account when designing can contribute to preserving this local ecosystem.

Objects that contribute to biodiversity

Cities are expanding, and we mostly design them based on the needs of humans. However, we as humans are not the only inhabitants of these cities, they also form the habitats for different species like birds, cats, bats, insects… So the question is: how can we take our non-human neighbors that live here too into account when designing our cities? For this project, a location is chosen next to the TU/e Campus. This location is a future building spot. We can make use of this moment, as they're not building there yet, to understand the current local ecosystem through observations and research of this specific spot. Based on this ecological roadmap objects are designed during a multidisciplinary prototyping week, where the objects have the goal to support the local ecosystem. The method of using ecological insights in creating objects can give insights into how buildings can have a positive effect on biodiversity.

Who is involved?

Iris Bekkers, a graduating master's student Industrial Design, collaborates with Vericon (an innovative construction company) and the municipality of Eindhoven. The prototypes are made during a prototyping week with a multidisciplinary team of designers, architects, engineers, and biologists.

Credits

This project could only be realized thanks to all the amazing people who have contributed. The following people participated in the my non-human neighbor prototyping week: Joana Coronel Soler, Izard Lucca Hendrikx, Harish Daruari, Luise Stark, Mathias Nielsen, Sichao Yang, Emilie Barrow, Joep Vossen, Olatz Pereda Bados. The process was documented and captured by Luise Stark. Special thanks to the experts involved: Ellen van Rosmalen and Vadim Steveniers, who helped me to interpret the ecological data.