Pollino.

Winner of the 1st NEB 2025 Rising Stars Award in the category ‘Reconnecting with nature’.

Pollino is a design concept that transforms urban infrastructure into multifunctional habitats for wild pollinators, focusing on solitary bees. Its overall objective is to combat the urgent decline in pollinator populations, which are critical agents for plant reproduction, biodiversity and climate resilience, by reconnecting fragmented ecosystems.

Developed through interdisciplinary collaboration with ecologists, urban planners and policy makers, the initiative was tested in Budapest with 12 prototype installations deployed and evaluated over a year.

These pilots provided valuable insights into how material choices, cavity dimensions and surrounding vegetation influence pollinator occupancy, shaping the design and defining ideal implementation sites. By bringing together ecological research and urban design, the project exemplifies an innovative and scalable solution that contributes to resilient urban ecosystems.