Creating NEBourhoods Together

A Multispecies Facade is being built at the Feierwerk Südpolstation in Neuperlach. Designed by doctoral candidate Iuliia Larikova from the TUM Professorship of Digital Fabrication for the NEB Action ECOLOPES, the facade intends to provide habitat for hedgehogs, and for birds like sparrows and redstarts.

Iuliia Larikova, the designer and currently a doctoral candidate at the TUM Professorship of Digital Fabrication, aims to provide a habitat for various types of animals while using the facade’s structure to create a self-shading effect that cools down the surface and inside of the facade. Advised by Prof. Dr. Kathrin Dörfler, head of the Professorship of Digital Fabrication, and Dr. Fabio S. T. Sweet and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang W. Weisser, both from the TUM Chair for Terrestrial Ecology, she uses novel technologies such as generative design and 3D printing with recycled clay to optimise the shape of each individual element and create the ideal composition for the needs of the animals. In the following years, this Multispecies facade will provide safe spaces for hedgehogs and small ground-dwelling animals, as well as building-inhabiting birds such as house sparrows (Haussperlinge) and the black redstart (Hausrotschwanz), while providing a closer view of the animals and their behaviours for the users of the Feierwerk Südpolstation. Structures like these bring us one step closer to creating ECOLOPES that account for the needs of humans and nature and creating cities where people and nature can coexist.

Picture Credits: NEBourhoods / Patrik Thomas