Dutch designer Matilde Boelhouwer has designed a series of artificial flowers that turn rain into sugar water, to serve as emergency food sources for city-dwelling insect pollinators.
The project, called Food for Buzz, saw Boelhouwer use screen-printed polyester to create five artificial flowers, each with specific qualities that attract the "big five of pollination" ? bees, bumblebees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths.
The man-made flowers are designed to act as emergency food sources for these insects, all of which live in urban environments, where flowers and planted areas are often few and far between.

"For me, the relationship between flowers and insects is one of the most fascinating connections found in nature. Flowers evolved to serve insects, and insects evolved to serve flowers simultaneously," said the designer. "Nowadays, however, with all of us living in urban jungles made of concrete and stone, the presence of flowers has become something less natural. This lack of flowering has resulted in a drastic insect population decline."

Each self-sustaining flower is made up of a series of laser-cut screen-printed polyester petals, with a small 3D-printed container attached at the centre, which is connected to a hollow 3D-printed stem.
These containers are used to collect and contain rainwater, which is transported down the stem to a tank containing sugar, where the two mix together. The solution is then automatically pumped back u...