the hive
THE HIVE is an exploration of the boundaries between nature, urbanity and food production. The project interrogates what food production and manufacturing mean in a urban setting and aims to challenge the notions of what is natural (raw) and built (synthetic). The juxtapositions of these dualities is provoked with every decision, allowing its inhabitants to question what they know. The building acts as a large-scale apiary in which honey bees take the primary actor role. The structure is created for honey bees to inhabit, pollinate, produce and live with crevices carved out for human ephemeral occupancy. Trees, plants and herbs that facilitate honey bee pollination blur the thresholds between interior and exterior, allowing the bees to freely circulate.
The auxiliary human spaces aid the production, manufacturing and nurturing of the raw elements as well as provide a learning environment where New Yorkers may learn to keep their private apiaries thus replenishing the declining honey bee population of New York.
University of pennsylvania school of design 2019
critic: Nate Hume
collaboration with Catherine Shih
Featured in SuckerPunch
Inspired by the vibrant life at Industry City, Brooklyn we completed a series of material studies in which we played with cold and warm materials and colors to explore a balance which would ultimately translate to the color scheme and distribution of the final building.
We focused on concrete and resin as the main base materials and experimented with various color pigments and additives in order to create effects that distortion the reading of the physical form of the object. Through this process we aimed to understand the various ways in which color and material can disrupt an architectural rhythm and how that may be used to delineate or obfuscate program or circulation in a building.
As we hones in on our material exploration we wanted to investigate the formal consequences of the forms we were working with. We were intrigued by the idea of making a seemingly dense building which rested upon a moire frame of steel structure. As we played with various interior forms and honed in on certain spaces we developed the design of the building, assessing the feasibility with a structural consultant and a mechanical consultant. The models below begin to demonstrate some of these principles which as we worked through, eventually led us to the design of the final building.
The Hive is an urban apiary that challenges the notion of urban production, manufacturing, and consumption of food.
The structure has confounding thresholds that allow nature and honeybees to both freely roam and be separated from humans. The interaction between species is calculated and precise, allowing people to become a part of the experience of producing honey without the risks associated with the practice of harvesting and keeping bees.
The seemingly heavy mass is broken down in volumes through slivers which subverts the notion of heaviness and lightness within the building. It appears as a monolith yet the ground plane has few touchdown points, elevating the structure.
The concrete and steel are inversions of their inherent strength and qualities of post-industrial materials, one acting as cladding and one as structure. Systems pass through the steel structure and puncture the concrete-clad enclosures to bring the necessary systems for the apiary to function.
The building acts as the nurturer, host and producer of honey production, consumption and distribution. The building intends to nurture honey bees and local vegetation in a symbiotic feedback loop.
Pockets of beehives throughout the building are displayed or hidden in interior cavities and poche, which then bees are released to pollinate internally and externally. The extraction process becomes part of the architecture and at times is showcased within the geometry. The series of linear buildings that characterize industry city form interstitial spaces, or sliver spaces, that the community appropriates as cultural meeting places.
The building incorporates the idea of the sliver spaces as nodes of engagement and interaction, where the three systems at play, humans, bees and plants, intertwine. These sliver spaces act as the connectors between the network of cavities.
transversal section through programs: apiary (left), honey harvesting and production (mid left), circulation and restaurant (center), market (right)
exterior elevation
ground floor plan cutting through entrance of the building and displaying ground types which reflect internal program shifts
first floor plan cutting through harvesting and production, restaurant, and gardens.
As material consideration was paramount to the ideation of the proposed building, it also played a key role in the development of our model. Digitally modeled, 3d printed, coated in concrete, some parts cast, and painted the construction and assembly of the model provided us with an imperative understanding of the feasibility and process of an internally complex building.
