Pollinator Highway.
A biodiverse linear park and green corridor for pollinators and people
Installation Competition ‘Place Buzz’
In September 2022, we opened the three winning works of the competition 'Place Buzz': 'Straw Chapel', 'Reed', and 'Interspecies Crossing'. The aim of the installations is to enrich the Pollinator Highway with environmentally sensitive public art.
Straw Chapel
Reed
Interspecies Crossing
Aerial views / Paco Ulman
Opening tour / Jelena Rudi
We were looking for innovative site-specific, environmentally sensitive and community-engaging contemporary installations which are art works or architectural objects. The installations could be in any format and medium (including land art, intervention, installation, sculpture, architecton or small architectural form). The priority of the competition was to highlight sections of the Pollinator Highway by making the most of its existing space and the potential of its elements as well as to turn the monotonous environments into more lively ones. One of our goals was to make the sections of the Pollinator Highway feel more like a whole. Active users of the Pollinator Highway also felt that there was a lack of attractive views, opportunities for activities, places to rest and variety in the space. They asked for more areas to spend their free time at without the pressure of consuming anything.
Anyone involved in the field of art, architecture or urban studies was welcome to participate. We asked to base their decisions on the principles of sustainability and the materials’ lifecycles when creating the installations and choosing the materials. The submitted work needed to be feasible and fit into the prescribed budget of 20,000 euros per installation, including the prize fund. We established the installations in the autumn of 2022 and they will be up until at least the end of 2023.
Concept
Selecting the winners
More information and our contact:
putukavail@tallinnlv.ee
Nineteen works were submitted for the installation competition ‘Place Buzz’. From these, three winning works were selected: two by the competition jury and one by public vote.
1053 votes were cast in the public vote with the winner being 'Interspecies Crossing'. The jury pointed out that the installation fits perfectly with the concept of the Pollinator Highway, being directed at non-humans but also creating a visual landmark referring to the interruptions of green areas in the urban environment.
The international jury chose 'Straw Chapel' and 'Reed' as the winners. In addition to harmonizing with the concept of the Pollinator Highway, they also stood out with their interesting use of materials and engagement of different audiences or various target groups.
The jury's special mention was awarded to a community pavilion and event space 'Braid' (authors LLRRLLRR – Laura Linsi, Roland Reemaa), in which human, environmental and material relations intertwine.
The competition jury was composed of Tallinn’s Deputy Mayor Vladimir Svet, the Tallinn Strategic Management Office Competence Centre for Spatial Planning’s Urban Planner Anna Semjonova and Public Art Curator Kati Ots, Helsinki Art Museum’s Public Art Curators Aleksandra Kiskonen and Kristiina Ljokkoi, Mae Köömnemägi representing the Estonian Association of Architects, Elin Kard representing the Estonian Artists’ Association and Maire Suimets representing the Urban Environment and Public Works Department and Estonian Landscape Architects' Union.
Download the competition rules here.
All the proposals can be viewed on the public vote page.
The competition was led by the Tallinn Strategic Management Office Spatial Planning Team and the competition rules were completed in cooperation with the Pollinator Highway’s working group. The competition was based on the concept of the Pollinator Highway, the development strategy Tallinn 2035 and Tallinn’s values as the Green Capital of Europe 2023. The project was developed with the support of B.Green, a European Union project funded by the Interreg Central Baltic Program, which supports cross-border cooperation, sustainable urban mobility, and cohesive communities.