APIAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE
by Hebah Gheedan
The global pandemic recalibrated our connection with the natural world and allowed us to realise the impact of the Anthropocene on valuable ecosystems. In the Royal Docks, habitat destruction is evident on a small scale. During the pandemic, construction and redevelopment came to a halt. Brownfield sites thrived, creating rich micro-habitats with rare native flora and fauna, including pollinators, which are under threat as construction resumes. Pollinators are overlooked yet are keystone species, without which the local ecosystem would collapse and so would all life. The Apian Research Institute acts as an interface between honeybees and humans, attracting global researchers to study, learn from and inform design for pollinators. Through non-humancentric design, we shift our perspective and become guests within the pollinators’ habitat, just as we remain as guests in the natural world.
