Tallinn’s Pollinator Highway is enriched with interspecies installations

The practical art objects are competing for one of the 2023 New European Bauhaus Prizes

Tallinn is the European Green Capital this year, and a big role in snatching the title was played by the Pollinator Highway project, which was the creation of a 13-km continuous green belt to encourage the proliferation of pollinating insects.

Now the Pollinator Highway itself has been enriched with some innovative public art installations, which seek to bridge the gap between people and insects and inspire a new way of thinking about urban design. So much so, that these installations, collectively known as “Place Buzz” have made it to the final nominees in the 2023 New European Bauhaus Prizes competition.

Three ideas for a transformative city

The Pollinator Highway is defined by both biodiversity and urbanization. The city and nature are not opposite words: the guiding principle of the project is to preserve the richness of natural life while simultaneously offering both diverse activity opportunities and environmentally friendly movement opportunities for people.

This bodes ideally with the values of the New European Bauhaus movement: aesthetics, social inclusion and sustainability.

“Place Buzz”, nominated in the category Champions – reconnecting with nature, consists of three separate projects called: “Straw Chapel”, “Reeds” and “Interspecies Crossing”.

Straw Chapel located in Mustjõe is a modern community pavilion that represents local values, eco-friendly building methods and materials, community activities, a do-it-yourself attitude and spending time in nature. The authors of the work are Eneli Kleemann, Katariina Mustasaar, Lill Volmer, Mia Martina Peil and Marie Anette Veesaar.

Reed located in Mustjõe, Veskimetsa and Väike-Õismäe consists of three installations in a row. Their common aspect is the material used for their creation – reed. Reed offers a different spatial experience for a human visitor as well as a habitat for insects. The authors of the work are Triin Vallner and Ko Ai.

Interspecies Crossing fits in very well with the concept of the Pollinator Highway, being primarily aimed at insects, but also creating a visual landmark that draws attention to the interruption of green areas in urban space. Just like people need to cross the streets to get to another sidewalk, so do insects need to cross over roads that separate green spaces. The authors of the work are Nabeel Imtiaz, Paulina Schroeder, Augustas Lapinskas and Christian Hörner.

In the future, the Pollinator Highway will become a city-wide linear park rich in life, a public space offering new green movement connections and diverse activity opportunities.