Landscape Architecture and Design Takes Center Stage at International Garden Festival

Birdhouses and bee towers rise high in the garden installation. Photo by Eric Sander.

After fabricating the pieces in Vol Walker Hall, the team shipped them to France for installation.

Students worked in a high-tunnel greenhouse workshop in Chaumont-sur-Loire, France.

Students Oliver Right and Fiorella Sibaja assemble the houses.

After a week of assembly, students started installing the bee towers.

Students lift the Old Main-inspired birdhouse into place.

With all the constructed pieces in place, the team finishes planting the garden.

From left, Fiorella Sibaja, Ava McMoran, Kara Simmons, Elijah Willis and Oliver Right.

Butterfly houses line a path in the garden installation. Photo by Eric Sander.

Ville des Pollinisateurs” at Chaumont International Garden Festival. Photo by Eric Sander.

Eric Sander

"Ville des Pollinisateurs," an installation created by a faculty-student team in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, won entry to this year's famed Chaumont International Garden Festival in France.

Imagine a world where pollinators design the cities. Imagine a place where birds and butterflies don't just inhabit the air, they control it. Imagine humanity's experience if homo sapiens weren't the dominant species.

These imaginings acted as guiding principles for a recent garden installation by a team in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. Scott Biehle, teaching associate professor of landscape architecture, along with landscape architecture and design students, created the garden "Ville des Pollinisateurs." Their installation won entry to this year's famed Chaumont International Garden Festival in France. The festival is held at the Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire and runs until Nov. 3. Over more than six months, the festival is expected to attract more than 550,000 visitors from around the world.

Alongside Biehle, and under his guidance, students worked on every stage of the design and installation process.

In October 2023, Biehle, Kara Simmons and Fiorella Sibaja, both fourth-year landscape architecture students, entered their design into the juried competition. With hundreds of design proposals, Biehle said he felt a sense of accomplishment in having their design selected for the international garden festival.

"Ville des Pollinisateurs" — city of pollinators — challenges garden visitors to imagine a world in which birds, bees, insects and bats — among the world's pollinators — have evolved to become the urbanizers of the world, leaving humanity at the periphery.

The garden's design drew inspiration from New York City. Bee towers represent skyscrapers with other structure types scattered throughout. The middle of the garden features a nod to Central Park. A small trail winding throughout provides space for people to walk amongst the pollinators and view the garden, but the pollinators' habitats take precedence. The team designed the experience to encourage people to ask, "What would it have been like if the roles were reversed?"

Notably, they challenged viewers' perspectives by shifting the perspective. Bringing the garden to viewers' eye level, Simmons said, forced viewers to observe the pollinators in action.

"The tall nature of the garden allows for the important interaction between the viewer of Pollinator City and its residents," Simmons said. "Designing it forced me to play with proportion and really reinforced that this is a city for creatures smaller than us."

By designing with pollinators top of mind, the team's garden encourages viewers to shift their understanding of the beings' significance. Sibaja said that, while pollinators often go unnoticed, they are impossible to miss in their garden.

"By flipping the usual narrative, we made the pollinators the main characters of the garden, allowing humans to be mere observers of this bustling city of life, color and nature," Sibaja said. "The juxtaposition of the urban environment with the natural, vibrant world of pollinators created a unique and immersive experience, highlighting the vital, yet often invisible, role these creatures play in our ecosystems."

After they learned that the jury selected their design to be one of 26 gardens at this year's festival, Oliver Right, Ava McMoran and Elijah Willis, all fourth-year landscape architecture students, joined the team. Although they came aboard after the initial concept was decided, Biehle said the students played a vital role in tackling design issues.

The project started with designing and fabricating garden elements within the Fay Jones School. The team researched the best structures for the desired pollinators. Biehle said the animals are particular about their houses' size, shape, form and even color. The team designed the houses to be attractive to particular species and then added their own design takes on them.

While the overall inspiration for the garden came from New York City, Right said the team also paid homage to France.

"The bird and insect houses were designed to echo the architectural styles of France, representing upper-, middle- and lower-class aesthetics," Right said. "We strategically placed bird and insect houses (serving as their homes) and pollinator-friendly plants (serving as their workplaces) in dense, urban-like neighborhoods."

The team created the various components for the houses in the wood shop in Vol Walker Hall. Using the laser cutter, they made the house components with tabs so the individual pieces could be transported flat, and then constructed and installed on the site.

During the installation process, the team confronted issues they were unable to address before arriving on site. Biehle said that, before arriving, they had not determined how to attach the houses to the support poles. They also addressed issues of dealing with unfamiliar terrain and digging holes. Through the obstacles, the students' work attitude impressed Biehle.

"I was happily surprised and grateful for the students' willingness to get dirty and figure out things," Biehle said. "They really just seemed to enjoy it."

In addition to understanding the importance of thinking things through and having a detailed process, students learned about organization, planning ahead and the actual process of building.

In June, three months after the installation, Biehle visited the garden and observed visitors' reactions.

"It was great to see the pollinators were actually living in these things, but equally important was watching people's reactions to it," Biehle said. "I just sat in a corner and watched people. They were having fun, and they were taken with the garden itself. That was fun to see the work being successful."

While Biehle enjoyed the garden's success, he said being selected for the festival is a mark of achievement for the department as a whole. Having the work of a small department from Arkansas on this international stage is a beacon of the exceptional work they are doing.  

"It's a really great thing for the department to demonstrate the quality of the education and the great opportunities that come with being a student in our landscape architecture program," Biehle said. "Hopefully it also attracts really great, talented landscape architecture students."

The team's research, construction and installation costs were partially funded by the Chaumont International Garden Festival. Biehle also received a Dean's Grant for Creative Research and Practice from the Fay Jones School to support the project.

This is the third time representatives of the Fay Jones School have created an installation for the Chaumont International Garden Festival.

In 2018, "Into the Woods" was designed by Phoebe Lickwar, former associate professor of landscape architecture at the Fay Jones School and founding principal of FORGE; Hannah Moll, Fay Jones School alumna (B.L.A. '17) and landscape designer; Matthew Donham, 2017 Verna C. Garvan Distinguished Visitor in Landscape Architecture in the Fay Jones School and landscape architect; and Andersen Woof, a landscape designer.

In 2019, "Inhabiting the Wall" was designed by Windy Gay, formerly an instructor in interior design at the Fay Jones School, and Justin Tucker, fabrication specialist in the school. Beau Burris (B.L.A. '20), then an honors landscape architecture student, and Dallas Myers (LARCBS '19), then a landscape architectural studies student, also contributed to the garden.