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Ciclo 2019-2022: Metahumanismo y hábitats experimentales
Enfasis en proyecto e investigación tecnológica, EAU, UN
KARAYARI
Microarchitecture for bees and earthworms restorative action
Karayari is a multi-scale action plan to trigger and boost biodiversity in the Sahel, by creating and disseminating healthy habitats for two tiny local organisms that have a great impact on vegetation: Bees and earthworms. Bees are responsible for pollination of plants, and earthworms play a key role in soil enrichment. The aim is to achieve biological corridors for bees and earthworms across the air and the ground in the Sahel by creating microhabitats and networks of biodiversity nodes in different bioregions using computer-aided design. This solution is being developed by a cross-disciplinary team of architects and entomologists from National University of Colombia as a nature-based method to ensure sprawl of the green belt in spite of the fragmentation of the territory due to human-related causes like national frontiers and conflict zones. The name of the solution, "Karayari" is an acronym that combines African words for soil -Kasa-, revival -ARAYAR- and air -Iska-. The action plan aims to activate a regenerative process of vegetation support, ecosystem resilience and ecological restoration from coast to coast.
Más allá de la sostenibilidad +
Nuevas Materialidades +
Amenazas y Resiliencia + Bioclimática
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Andrés IBAÑEZ +
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Andrés F. PEREZ + Daniel ROJAS +
David PERICO
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THE PROBLEM
Karayari addresses two main problems: 1) In most areas of the Sahel, soil has lost its capacity to produce nutrients that support vegetation growth. Most applied methods for soil enrichment worldwide are artificial, unaffordable for many local communities, require good access roads, alter chemical balance of the ecosystems, and are counterproductive for the soil quality in the long run. 2) Most areas in the great green wall can´t be reached easily through access roads. The lack of proper access infrastructure makes it difficult for humans to monitor the planted areas and ensure effective dissemination across the territory. Methods that help vegetation disseminate are key to reach the vast target area of the Great Green Wall. Nearly 70% of agriculture and vegetation reproduction depends on pollinators, particularly bees, but the population of bees has been rapidly declining over the last decades, making it one of the most important issues the word is now facing. Drones can partially replace pollination role, but this technology is expensive and has high-standards requirements like a reliable source of energy, charging mechanisms, maintenance, technical knowledge, and human expertise.
National borders and prevailing armed conflicts in the Sahel pose additional challenges for safe people mobility across the area and the endurance of methods to enrich the soil. Local Bees and earthworms use above-the-ground and under-the-ground corridors that make their restorative action almost imperceptible, and neutral to the high number of armed groups that have presence in the 11 countries across the Sahel.
OUR VISION
Over the next couple of years, Karayari will finish gathering available data on the current behavior and presence of insects in the region, conduct simulations on the dissemination patterns at the macro scale, and complete microarchitecture designs for nesting places, composting and honey bee micro facilities. The next three years will be dedicated to working closer with local communities and groups to implement 5 prototypes under distinct climatic and geographical areas and test them. The work over the next five years will be centered on analyzing the progress and impact of the prototypes and training new communities on the action plan for further implementation in other areas. As this is a long run project, the vision goes beyond 10 years. After this time lapse, efforts should be placed on finding synergies with emerging conservation practices once the ecosystems have reached its stability and resilience.
​Karayari will make a difference in the Sahel once the number of local bees and earthworms habitats have multiplied across the land. From a biological perspective, the presence of these organisms is used as a proxy indicator of how a biodiverse and resilient an ecosystem is. Once these organisms settle in initial key areas of intervention, they will attract other forms of life and progressively shape a balance and healthy network of organisms that support life, creating a beneficial loop that balances ecosystems and enables them to overcome disturbances in the long run. The concentration of biomass and the number of other living organisms and animals and the territory will be an indicator of the impacts in the long run. On the social front, Karayari will engage human communities in production activities related to these local insects, providing sources of income, giving them an opportunity to strengthen their awareness on the importance of non-human forms of life in the territory, and creating neutral places for peace building and communication improvement amongst different countries, cultures and ethnicities.
HOW IT WORKS
The Meta-Architecture Lab (MALA) team has combined architecture, entomology and artificial intelligence to design partial human interventions across the landscape in 4 bioregions of the Sahel, so that local African stingless bees like Plebaina Holdebranti, Eudrilus Eugeniae and local earthworms like Eudrilus Eugeniae can multiply their habitats and spread across the territory. These interventions include actions at different scales to aid these insects strengthen their presence and natural functions: 1) At the micro scale, landscape and micro architecture designs to provide required temperature and environmental conditions for nesting, and mulch fabrication with clay and sand using macromolecules technique. 2) at the meso scale, places for composting organic waste to provide food for worms, and places for bee keeping in specific communities prone to this practice, and 3) at the macro scale, mapping the trigger points across the territory and using artificial intelligence to find their most effective distribution pattern for better dissemination and coverage of these organisms in the Sahel belt. Karayari envisions participatory action and strategies to engage women and young groups in bee and worm keeping, so that honey and compost can contribute to solving the malnutrition in northern Africa. The interventions focus on the use of local materials available in the region: clay, agriculture waste, available dry wood sticks and other natural fibers locally sourced.
RESEARCH
Members of the Meta-Architecture Lab participated in natured based competitions that were awarded internationally: First place in the Global Biomimicry Challenge, and finalists in the Climate Louch Pad, Colombia, 2019. Currently, the architecture team works with biologists at the Alexander Von Humbodt Institute, the laboratory on wild bees’ diversity from the Department of Biology, and the Research Team on Macromolecules at National University of Colombia.
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