How to design for
biodiversity?

︎︎︎Tischläufer

While monocultural farming destroys biodoversity on the countryside, people in the city are barely aware about their rich surroundings. In the worst case they are even scared or disgusted by natural organisms around them. We realised, there are countless gadgets for feeding wild animals & spreading seeds in your yards or parks.
But this does not help as long as people them self feel disconnected and independent from their natural surroundings.
With our object we looked into a possible reality where humans and animals live side by side. Share habits, needs and meals. Ever been disgusted by an ant stitting on your cake? Maybe you should think about sharing.

Tablerunner creates an inviting object for dinner,
simultaneously enjoyed by humans and ants.
The ants are staged to gather the centre of attention. Despite their small appearance they are the focus at this interspecies dinner. Come and have a look.

The glass spheres have been handmade by munich glassblower Frank Liebmann. We carefully assembled the handblown objects in a wooden base. PVC pipes connect the spheres and are meant to lead outdoors, to give the animals free choice of joining and leaving.

The project was developed and exhibited for the museum Biotopia. In cooperation with scientists from the LMU, researchers and designers we created concepts about production, perception and consuming food.

This Project was created by Severin Popp &
Marianne Sellmaier