Pictured: student nest assemblage

In collaboration with insect ecologist Dr. Amy Mertyl and environmental scientist and artist Dr. Nicole Weber, Our Place is a STEAM-based installation that asks how more-than-human habitats can inform sculptural and architectural thinking.

Students began by observing local ecologies, looking closely at how insects and animals construct shelter. They then moved into collection and assembly, building individual nest forms from found and repurposed materials.

The works were brought together into a collective installation, structured through a tessellated hexagonal grid, where small-scale gestures accumulate into a shared system. The project emphasizes how individual actions can produce larger structures, mirroring cooperative logics found in non-human environments.