As a result of the design challenge Our Energy Our Landscape, the Dutch design studio Venhoeven CS, the landscape architecture agency Landschapsarchitecten and the study of solar energy solarix have developed “Butterfly Effect”, a concept design capable of producing energy and a safe path for insects.
The project creates a network spanning a Dutch highway to provide insects with safe passage across the busy A67 highway on the Strabrechtse Heide. The team claims that 85% of our food supply depends on insect pollination. The team highlights the need to support biodiversity and fight climate change through a connection with nature. And providing support to the smallest creatures produces the largest “Butterfly Effect” (hence the name of the project). A great “butterfly effect” that produces exponential changes.
Highway for nature and humans
“A motorway constitutes a huge barrier for many insects as the eddies and currents in the air caused by traffic are deadly for them,” says the architect and director of VenhoevenCS Cecilia Gross.
The idea for Butterfly Effect was born (but is it?) observing butterflies, which crossed the road only during traffic jams, when the air was still. Although the network was designed for use in the Netherlands, the team is excited by the prospect of applying it in other locations around the world.
Butterfly Effect, energy and protection
As well as providing a connection from one side of the road to the other without the threat of windscreen impact, Butterfly Effect also uses the space above the road to create renewable energy. The honeycomb structure is designed to be filled with energy-creating solar technology. This obviously also reduces the land consumption necessary for the solar panels to do their job.
Technological innovation presents new options every day, including translucent photovoltaic surfaces (currently used for solar greenhouses) which would be the basis for solar collection on the belt.
Butterfly Effect's design funnels nitrogen and other soil-friendly particulates to the side of the road, feeding surrounding trees and other plants. This dense foliage creates a noise buffer for the nature reserve on the other side.
