Netherlands Institute of Ecology

By Hattie Hartman

A trip to the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO) in Wageningen, just over an hour southeast of Amsterdam, transports visitors to another world. Set back from a busy road, which separates the institute from Wageningen University, the building is accessed by a 90-foot-long timber walkway that spans a pond full of reed beds and croaking frogs. Behind the main building are a series of greenhouses and research pavilions with solar panels, a bicycle shed, a bat habitat, and a hotel for solitary bees.