Xiaoxu Cheng

Biodiversity in cities is declining and large numbers of invertebrates are becoming extinct. It is essential to enrich biodiversity in this green desert of cities.

The invertebrate ecosystem is suitable for the city centre. The design is centred around Richmond Park. There are many parks like Richmond Park that protect invertebrates. The habitat area of vertebrates connects each wild ecological area and continuously covers the blank of the city.

The main function of the biological bridge is to attract invertebrates (solitary bees, etc.) to designated locations, and continuously expand the network and area of urban re-wilding. Establish a complete food and habitat at the contact point, and use humans as the transmitters of creatures without too much labor. Diversified creatures will also give back to us a wild garden.

Cheng Xiaoxu is a fabric and material specialist, constantly exploring the application of biological materials in future design applications. During the MA, she continued to study how the human world and the non-human world coexist in future cities and explored how to increase biodiversity in urban centres from a designer's perspective.

Four Components that Attract Invertebrates – These four components are suitable for the following scenarios: apartment balconies on the lower floors, private gardens, community planting activities, etc.

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Visible hive : For the honeycomb built by solitary bees, bio-clay is made of materials containing lignin and beeswax, which can attract solitary bees to build nests. The honeycomb contains a semicircular channel, combined with the double-layer superposition of transparent acrylic boards and wooden boards, you can see the activities of the bees inside at any time. The back of the honeycomb is hollow, and a certain number of tubular honeycombs can be put into it.
Tube and tools : The tubular structure in the hive needs to be replaced regularly, so a small, easy-to-operate printing tool is designed to make a hollow solitary hive with recycled paper at home. Combined with the structure of the hive, any recycled Tubular structures are placed into the hive, eg straws, hollow plant stems, plastic tubes, etc.
Wildflower & Fruit Mixed Seed Balls : Four seasons wildflower seeds combined with specific fruit seeds, wildflowers attract bees, residents can get fruit and life-rich gardens without much effort. Not only can wildflowers serve as food for invertebrates and solitary bees, but rewilding can improve carbon sequestration efficiency.
Gloves : Gloves can be applied to two scenarios. First, to establish a wild ecosystem in the garden, biodiversity will increase, and gloves will be used to lure out bees or other creatures that stray into the home instead of harming them by other means. Second, in community planting activities, the members are older people who have planting experience and young people who are new to participate because of their love and interest. A large part of them are afraid of invertebrates. People will feel safer when they are blocked by gloves. And willing to touch. Nutrients in the glove are also able to provide nutrients to the insects. For more information about gloves, please follow the cooperative product designer Shenyang Xi.

Modular Bee Hotel – Modular design. Place the beehive vertically, you can adjust the number of connected beehives according to the number of gardens and bees, and place it horizontally when you use it alone, the design of the bottom waterproof platform can effectively raise the entire beehive。

Modular Bee Hotel – Modular Bee Hotel – The honeycomb is composed of five hexagons, supported by acrylic on the right side, forming six spaces, and there is a semicircular visible honeycomb on the side edge. The five hexagons can be rotated by axes to form different shapes and can be made to fit the balcony.

Modular Bee Hotel – The axis of rotation in the hive was replaced by tubes. For the health of solitary bees and morning exercise, the orientation of the tubes is preferably south and east, so I put the tubes into the hive in an interspersed and overlapping manner.

Gloves to attract bees – Different colors of nutrients attract and feed different kinds of insects.

Home Printing Tools – Solitary bees will choose to stay in a cave for two to three months, in order to avoid a large number of bacteria and parasites from affecting the health of the bees, especially the larvae. Therefore, the tube should be replaced once every two months.

Home Printing Tools – The resulting tubes can be thrown directly into the soil of your yard or balcony after use, where the biomaterial becomes food for invertebrates and is great for wildflowers and grasses.

Recycled Pipe – Pipes with a diameter of 6mm-8mm and a length of more than 15cm can be recycled and placed in the hive. Tubes made of different materials will attract different types of solitary bees, and the materials can be roughly divided into glass, plants, cardboard, plastic, etc.

3D Printing of Biomaterials – 1. 3D printing has high requirements for biological materials. Try to ensure that the state of the material remains unchanged within two days, and the humidity, hardness, and viscosity are moderate. 2. The pressure and layer height of the printer are extremely important, and the parameters required for different strength materials are different. 3. The materials need to go through high-pressure filtration, exhaust and other steps before printing to ensure the printing quality.

3mm Nozzle Line – In the first stage of printing, a 3mm nozzle is used for printing. The material has obvious graininess and is relatively dry, but too wet will cause excess material to overflow during the printing process. Therefore, this stage mainly solves the problem of rough materials.

2mm Nozzle Line – In the second stage, a 2mm nozzle was used for printing, and the modified material became more delicate, and the problem of oil leakage when the material was placed for a long time was solved. After filtering and exhausting, it can pass through the 2mm nozzle smoothly, and the printing result is relatively successful.

Beeswax spray paint – Find natural white beeswax and plant powder dye mixed to make beeswax paint, not only can attract bees, and beeswax can act as a waterproof film to further protect the hive.

Recovery and Utilization of Bioceramics – All materials used in the printing process are biodegradable and can become nutrients in the soil, which is of great benefit to invertebrate organisms and wildflowers. In addition, recycled waste paper or wood chips can be used to replace conventional materials. Next, I will continue to study beeswax dyeing and white bioceramics.

Xiaoxu Cheng

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Royal College of Art