By Mark Favermann

Projects like Polinature overcome reams of bureaucracy, reinforced by government inertia, in order to improve our environment in admirably cost-effective and efficient ways.

Polinature by Belinda Tato and Jose Luis Vallejo, Ecosistema Urbano. Photo: Emilio P. Doiztua

Whether or not Mark Twain actually said it, the sentiment is right on when it comes to the challenges posed by the climate crisis and the worsening global environment. To paraphrase, “Everybody talks about climate change, carbon footprints, and environmental deterioration, but nobody seems to do much about it.” Of course, there are inspiring exceptions: the efforts of a few thoughtful, creative, and passionate individuals.

A wonderfully creative example of an environmentally savvy project was recently put on display (from mid-August to early October) at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in Cambridge. This temporary installation, titled Polinature, was overseen by landscape architect and Associate Professor of the Practice of Landscape Architecture Belinda Tato, her professional and academic colleagues, and graduate students.

Climate change generates extreme weather events, in part because it triggers rising temperatures around the world. Inevitably, a disruption of ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity follow. Subsequently, this strain on ecosystems results in damage to the natural pollinator distribution, whose role in ecological balance and global food availability cannot be understated. In Polinature, Tato focuses on providing a solution to this aspect of the crisis: “Preserving pollinator habitats is more important than ever before, and so too is the need to invent new ways to support their presence in urban areas.” This public space plug-in was a mitigating environmental platform, a site designed to integrate art and technology.

The elegantly structured installation advanced nature-based solutions by spotlighting native plants, usually overlooked in urban settings or replaced by highly manicured species. According to Tato, these plants are key to fighting climate change in an urban setting. The plants in Polinature‘s configuration were carefully curated to increase biodiversity by attracting a variety of bees — including endangered ones — and other pollinators like butterflies, beetles, and birds.

Polinature was a visually impressive vertical garden set in the backyard of 40 Kirkland Street, a building adjacent to the main campus of the Harvard GSD. A pollinators delight, the structure was erected in the final month of summer. The vertical vegetation vessel was created to be a sanctuary for insects as well as an occasional “picnic table” for hungry birds. Reaching a height of 36 feet and a diameter of 19 feet, the structure’s extended width included an LED lighted canopy that made it 37 feet wide. Its materials and contours were strategically — as well as creatively — planned. Polinature was set up to serve as a rapid response to how neighborhoods, towns, and cities could mitigate the effects of climate change.

Interior view, looking up, of Polinature by Belinda Tato and Jose Luis Vallejo, Ecosistema Urbano. Photo: Emilio P. Doiztua

Polinature was designed to be not only a scaffold to nurture nature, but an inviting public space that could be quickly assembled, a place where people could comfortably congregate, converse, and plan positive environmental actions together. Fabricated from a reusable “kit of parts” that includes scaffolding, native plants, and a canopy, the  structure is affordable, accessible, repeatable, and will generate nearly zero waste. Furthermore, the technical drawings and “kit of parts” are going to be made available as open source software — communities all over the world will be able to share this highly flexible plant structure template.

More than 1400 local plants were hung in grow bags from a cylindrical scaffolding tower that rose as high as the surrounding buildings. Tato described the structure this way: “Polinature has been designed as a low-cost, low-tech temporary solution to bring climatic comfort to urban areas that currently lack it.” This project came out of 20+ years of her research about how designers can effectively address the effects of heat in urban areas. Truly a design template for positive change, Polinature’s components are being disassembled and will be reused later. The various plant species and grow bags are being distributed throughout Cambridge to public institutions, residents, and relevant community groups.

Polinature by Belinda Tato and Jose Luis Vallejo, Ecosistema Urbano. Photo: Mark Favermann

As a work of environmental art, Polinature is a compelling and stunning structure. The natural plant elements speak viscerally to us. The inflatable canopy pods are the piece’s only slightly jarring visual components. The pods look a bit gratuitous — perhaps it is their clearly unnatural materials — rather than graceful.

Why was Polinature only up for such a short time? According to Tato, “The project had to be up for the summer season as one of the purposes of this prototype is to be able to measure the data collected inside the space versus outside the space and come to conclusions on how the system performs providing climatic comfort. It was always conceived as a short-term intervention, as the conclusion of the research.” Most important, the plants included in the project were perennials, which means they will become dormant through the winter and will only bloom again next spring. “By sharing them with the Cambridge community, says Tato, “Polinature will continue its life beyond its disassemblage.”

Polinature was primarily funded by the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard under its Climate Change Solutions Fund. The project’s costs amounted to around $143,000. The funds paid for research, engineering, experimental simulations, construction processes, plant materials, scaffolding, and canopy pieces. The work required inflatable fabrication, nursery maintenance, and landscape implementation, nutritionally enriched grow bags, solar panels, sensors, building permit, etc. A website was designed, fed by data gathered through the sensor system.

Polinature was designed by Tato in collaboration with her partner Jose Luis Vallejo and their organization, Ecosistema Studio, whose offices are in Cambridge and Madrid. Earlier versions of Polinature were erected at EcoBoulevard in Madrid, Air-Tree in Shanghai, and Cloudroom in Columbus, Indiana. Tato and Vallejo see their creative approach as a form of urban social design that fosters social interaction within communities and their relationship with the built and natural environments.

Landscape architect Belinda Tato and her team are doing while others are just talking … and talking. Projects like Polinature overcome reams of bureaucracy, reinforced by government inertia, in order to improve our environment in admirably cost effective and efficient ways. Bravo!

Mark Favermann is an urban designer specializing in strategic placemaking, civic branding, streetscapes, and retail settings. An award-winning public artist and sculptor, he creates functional public art as civic design and smaller functional objects. Early in his career, he was recognized for creating artistic events by transforming and documenting monumental structures into temporary sundials including Charlestown’s Bunker Hill Monument, the St Louis Arch and the then world’s tallest building — Chicago’s Sears (now Willis) Tower. The designer of the iconic Coolidge Corner Theatre Marquee, he is design consultant to the Massachusetts Downtown Initiative Program and since 2002 has been a design consultant to the Boston Red Sox.