2014 Housing the Multitude - Bug Hotels

Bringing together ecology, design, site and Rob Cruickshank and his entomology students, Neil Challenger and his second year studio class designed and then b​uilt a series of bug hotels that have been installed across the campus. A response to the decline in insect populations the hotels (some of which are bi​g enough to house a multitude of bugs) are aimed at beneficial insects such as butterflies, lace wings and l​ady birds (although apparently ‘all insects are welcome’). The hotels will be monitored by the entomology students to see which ones work best; but already monarch butterfly caterpillars are munching their way though the swan plants in their hotel’s dining room, so the landscape courtyard looks like it will benefit from a host of butterflies at some point later this year.