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biophilia treehouse: overview



the biophilia treehouse is a public arts initiative to create and grow a series of living sculptures using native trees and plants that together constitute a complete ecosystem for some of l.a.’s most threatened birds. when built in sequence, a series of biophilia treehouses form a wildlife corridor for these birds that reconnect fractured habitat, especially in dense urban parts of our city where environmental inequities abound. in collaboration with our community partners, we will co-create artistic insignia onto the structure that tells the story of the community’s relationship to the land. the ground floor of each biophilia treehouse sculpture is used by our education-based community partners as an outdoor classroom for arts + science instruction to primary school students. the biophilia treehouse is about the co-creation of art and storytelling with communities, arts and science education, biodiversity and the reconnection of bird habitats, and responding to inequities in access to park space.


healthy ecologies result in healthy communities

biophilia treehouse is grounded in the framework of one health, a global initiative that asserts that the health of humans, non-human animals, and the environment are intricately connected and co-dependent. humans are not separate from nature. we believe that human societies are healthy insofar as the natural environments + ecologies into which they are embedded are healthy.


biophilia means the love of living things.

we love birds and wish to honor them with the biophilia treehouse, a lush, vibrant, tree-like living sculpture designed to attract an abundance of birds to co-create places where they can rest, feed, nest and, in essence, make their home. these scalable, lightweight structures will host a myriad of native plants, and welcome humans to come contemplate, observe and reconnect to nature.

the biophilia treehouses wish to foster interspecies relationships. the birds and their ecosystems are our clients.

l.a. county sustainability plan
goal #5: 
thriving ecosystems, habitats, and biodiversity
biophilia treehouse
overview     |    structure     |    birds & plants     |    strategy     |    about     |    support


biophilia treehouse is a project by counterforce lab.

the counterforce lab is an initiative by professor rebeca méndez. it is a research and fieldwork studio based in the design media arts department at ucla, dedicated to using art and design to develop creative collaborations, new fields of study, and methods to research, create, and execute projects that investigate and mitigate the social and ecological concerns of the anthropocene era, a time when human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

contact:

rebecam@arts.ucla.edu


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