You’ve heard of the butterfly effect, the idea that a seemingly small event like a butterfly flapping its wings can have much larger, unexpected consequences thousands of miles away.

NC State University designers hope the installation they call The Butterfly Effect have its own rippling influence. 

The name holds double meaning, reflecting the designers’ intention both to attract literal pollinators and to spark curiosity about the research taking place in the five-story, glass-and-steel Plant Sciences Building just steps away. Also, when viewed from certain vantage points, the trellis looks like butterfly wings.

The goal, they say, is to transform how the public perceives and engages with the surrounding landscape.

The Butterfly Effect grew from a collaboration of College of Design faculty members and students, N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative staff members and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Centennial Campus Phytotron crew.

The installation features a functional trellis forming a tunnel that’s large enough for small children to play among flowers, vegetables and herbs planted in a test bed beneath it.

The trellis consists of seven bright white panels made of recyclable plastic. The panels themselves — light, inexpensive and portable — are filled with holes of various sizes and shapes, evoking the cellular structure of corn, one of the world’s most important crops.

Uniting Disciplines for a Common Cause

The project was funded through an NC State Art + Science mini-grant in an effort to bridge academic silos, and it was conceptualized by design faculty members James and Audrey Barnes. 

For selecting plants and propagating them, the couple leaned on the expertise of staff members of the Phytotron, who operate the controlled environmental spaces, including a rooftop greenhouse and growth chambers, in the Plant Sciences Building.

As Audrey Barnes, the head of the Department of Graphic Design and Industrial Design, notes, “The magic happens — innovation truly takes root — when you are playing across boundaries, when the designers are doing science, when the scientists are engaging with design or any number of tentacles out into … different disciplines.”

The installation got its start with a design thinking session involving project leaders, industrial design students and staff members with the N.C. PSI and the Phytotron.

The Phytotron staff grew the plant material from seeds. Today, the trellis supports a variety of species that reflect research taking place in the building as well as other plants native to North Carolina that attract pollinators, including butterflies.

Visitors can observe “Three Sisters” plantings — an indigenous agricultural pairing of corn, beans and squash — alongside novel sweetpotato varieties and sensory plants like basil and cilantro.

“We wanted to create an immersive or experiential way to engage them,” James Barnes explains, noting the design specifically caters to visiting schoolchildren who can run through the structure as a tunnel, touching and smelling the plants.

The Value of Bridge Work

The collaborative approach the designers took to achieve their goals was in keeping with the N.C. PSI’s aim — to encourage and support interdisciplinary teams in research that addresses some of the most complex challenges affecting agriculture and the environment.

As N.C. PSI Executive Director Adrian Percy notes, NC State students and faculty have demonstrated a strong appetite for bridging the arts and sciences both at work and play. 

“It helps with creativity and innovation,” he says. 

Not only that, the need for arts-and-sciences collaboration is apparent in the day-to-day work of the initiative, with engineers, computer scientists, biologists, agronomists and other scholars conducting research and working together to develop both physical and digital tools that work for farmers and researchers. 

Making agricultural tools and technology user-friendly and seamlessly adaptable requires design expertise, Percy explains.

“I think it’s important that we get more College of Design faculty members with this sort of expertise engaged in our work,” Percy adds.

James, an assistant research professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture + Environmental Planning and the Natural Learning Initiative, says the collaborative approach ensured the installation met the practical needs of the site while maintaining its aesthetic integrity.

Phytotron Research Associate Mike Beddoe agrees. 

As Beddoe explains, the Plant Sciences Building’s test beds were designed to display plants tied to agriculture and related research in North Carolina.

“We were excited about contributing to a novel design for a test bed, and without the collaboration between us and the College of Design on project timelines, target dates for plant maturities, as well as the choice of species able to withstand the full-sun environment in the front of the building, the project might not have succeeded,” he says.

Intentions to Share More Widely and Collaborate More Deeply

Beddoe is hopeful that he’ll have the opportunity to collaborate with the College of Design again, applying lessons learned, he says, “to build an even more exquisite art-focused exhibit that shows off native species and agricultural plants that are grown right here in North Carolina.” 

The Barneses, too, are excited about the partnerships they’ve built and the fact that the installation has been successful in attracting attention and questions. 

The installation won’t stay at the Plant Sciences Building long, they say. The idea is to make it available more widely, inspiring other people in other locations, continuing to help bridge the gap between design and the sciences and instilling interest in the natural world and agriculture for years to come.

Visitors are welcome to stop by the Plant Sciences Building, at 840 Oval Drive on Centennial Campus, to see the installation. It’s scheduled to remain on display through September. Industrial design student research assistants Emma Burkhart, Halley Powell and Audrey Jenkins helped design, fabricate and install The Butterfly Effect. 

This post was originally published in Plant Sciences Initiative.