The project “The Beehive” focuses on the process of creating honey, as well as those who produce it, bees, an important pollinating insect for the proper development of plants and crops.
Just as in the countryside, where the bee is called upon to pollinate the fields, the city also needs to develop green spaces and thus promote urban planting, which makes it possible to promote more areas where microorganisms can grow despite the large asphalt surfaces of cities. In addition to the environmental aspect, one of the major goals of this typology is to offer the best possible environment for a good coexistence between bees and humans, which can sometimes prove difficult for questions of allergies to stings or road safety, especially when a swarm moves to seek a new place to live.
In order to promote good stability, which takes into account all these issues, this project, which contains a maximum of 8 hives per square km to guarantee a balance in biodiversity, consists of an elongated building, new or renovated, which contains the housing with rooms on the second floor, the honey extraction room associated with the conventional kitchen on the third floor, an area for repairing and creating beekeeping equipment on the fourth floor and beehives which are located on the south facade to benefit from the sun's rays, which are important for the bees to can orient themselves in the outer space. The roof has a W-shape to promote the collection of rainwater, concentrated on the 4 corners of the house, which brings the water points closer to the crops, located on the north and south side and therefore facilitates its use for watering the plants. In addition, these curved areas provide hydration zones for bees, away from human activity and close to hives, which is vital for their survival. These water points are filled with aggregates so that the bees can land and drink without drowning. In addition to these functionalities, the 1st floor of this building contains a florist section, directly linked to the winter garden, which is located between the house and the road to establish a safety zone of at least 10m between the hives and the street. This winter garden makes it possible to already offer a good quantity of planting for the bees and guarantees the florist’s activity throughout the year. The typology also offers a whole sliding mosquito net system (like amido in Japan) which allows direct contact with the outside while being protected from the intrusion of insects inside. There is also a mosquito tunnel in the winter garden that connects the street to the flower shop, allowing visitors to move around the premises in serenity. And in order to best guarantee protection of the surrounding buildings from movements between the hives and the outside of the bees, which is very concentrated towards the entrance of their home, a mosquito net wall is also set up on the upper floors of the winter garden, to be able to protect the neighboring facades and to give direction lines of moving for the bees.
And as mentioned above, through the project, the goal would be to develop many areas of diverse vegetation, especially in areas of residential neighborhoods, where residents would be invited to participate in the maintenance of the plantations in order to offer a substantial flora to the bees and also to benefit from the results of these crops, such as fruits, vegetables or flowers. And it is not only these streets that give access to the plants, but also the other individual projects as well as those of the masterplan. A give-and-take relationship between these insects and humans.