As a young girl growing up in suburban Los Angeles, Joyce Hwang loved seeing how urban animals would create little moments of disorder in the highly manicured landscape. Now the intersection between animals and the built environment is at the very heart of her work as a professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo and as director of the ecologically focused practice Ants of the Prairie. Hwang’s projects, from bat towers to bee elevators to multispecies installations, have been on display throughout the world and have won multiple awards. In this episode, she talks to host David Hill about incorporating animals into our constructed spaces—what it entails, why it’s critical (for us as well as them), and what everyday people can do to make their homes and yards more accommodating to our non-human friends.

Credits:

Host: David Hill
Guest: Joyce Hwang
Writer/Producer: Laura Silverman
Production and editing by UB Video Production Group 

Coming March 31: A pioneer in the field of neurovascular disease, Elad Levy helped establish thrombectomy as the standard of care for stroke and was among the first to implant a brain-computer interface enabling people with limited mobility to operate devices with their thoughts. In the next episode, he discusses these and other groundbreaking achievements—and offers a preview of the innovations he’s advancing now.