Every year, as many native plant species go dormant for the winter, Austin’s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center comes alive in a different way: Eight one-of-a-kind forts are erected for its Fortlandia installation.
The forts are meant to connect kids and adults to the natural environment through playfulness and curiosity. The climbable, playable, interactive art pieces opened to the public today and will be there until early February.
When my wife, Nicolette, asked if I wanted to help her build one of these forts, I said, “sure, that sounds like fun.” And while it has been fun, it’s also been a massive undertaking.
Nicolette is an interior designer at STG Design, where at least a dozen designers and architects have been involved in the process – as well as engineers and a high-tech fabricator.
Our fort is called Honeycomb Hideout. It’s a human-sized beehive made of sixty hexagonal honeycombs that are each three feet across. And there are three abstract flowers around the beehive. This thing is huge.
One of the STG designers on the project, Georgina Cantu, said the Wildflower Center’s efforts to educate kids about pollination inspired the design.
“The idea is that the kids are actually the bee, so they can go from the flowers and then through the beehive, and that is how pollination actually works,” Cantu said.