Kew’s New Pollinator Hotels

At Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden, artist Kristina Pulejkova unveils four functional sculptures that tell the hidden story of seeds and act as a refuge for bees during the heat of summer.

Nestled in Wakehurst Kew’s wild botanic garden in West Sussex, a new installation is unveiled for this summer. ‘Seed Stories’ by visual artist Kristina Pulejkova focuses on the life of seeds, while also serving as a practical contribution to pollinator conservation in the UK.

The installation integrates sustainability, ecological science and digital technology through its four wooden sculptures. Pulejkova designed the pieces not only to serve as artwork but also as hotels for bees seeking refuge in environmentally challenging times.

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House on the Hill

Nestled in the rugged hills of Morelia, Mexico, the House on the Hill by HW Studio presents itself not as a declaration, but as a murmur—an architectural whisper shaped by memory, protection, and terrain.

This is a home that does not impose itself upon the land, but rather listens. Its four concrete walls—two anchoring the lifted terrain, two guiding arrival—are punctuation marks in a greater natural text. Here, architecture is not the poem but the pause, the breath, the hesitation between pines, fireflies, and distant birdsong. A solitary pathway leads to a centuries-old tree, so revered that the structure veers to honor its presence. This is not a promenade; it's a rite of passage, a pilgrimage into quietude.

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How Gardens Grow Us

Poppy Okotcha is a gardener. It’s a description that can mean so many things, from someone who potters in the back yard at the weekends to a professional with an encyclopedic knowledge of botany.

For Poppy, being a gardener is a philosophy and a metaphor – a way of living that transcends the space we call a garden and extends into every part of life. From her canal boat home, she began growing plants, exploring their uses in food and medicine, and training in permaculture, all the while sharing her experiences on social media. Her audience grew, and in June 2020, she left London for Devon with her partner.

When she first arrived five years ago, her garden was a “fantasy” of brambles, nettles, towering fennel, purple toadflax, languishing lavender, ragwort and fruiting raspberry canes among a “muddle” of 150 plants vying for space. Poppy saw potential. A place to put down roots, start a family and give her permaculture education a much wider rein than London living had allowed.

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MRTN Architects’ Garden Studios

MRTN Architects’ garden studios in Melbourne are a place to work – or to not work.

“A space to work and a space to ‘not work.’” This was the simple brief Lailani Burra and Hugh Marchant presented to MRTN Architects for their adjacent garden studios in suburban Melbourne. The two structures stand beside the couple’s renovated 1960s home, carefully oriented to appear spontaneously out of the garden, providing a haven for friends and family just a few steps from the main house.

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Canal Side

With an ever changing backdrop of canal boats, cyclists and walkers this elegantly simple space offers the opportunity for casual social interactions. 

Three staggered multistem trees filter views from the upper terrace and maintain privacy within the house. When summer comes, deck chairs and lawn rugs appear. A little garden to relax in and watch the world go by…

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