February 5, 2013

Project: K-abeilles Hotel for Bees
Architect: AtelierD
Location: Muttersholtz, France
This incredible multi-use pavilion provides shelter from the summer sun to visitors — and to wild bees. Often overlooked because of the fanfare surrounding their domesticated cousins, wild bees are integral to pollination worldwide. The pavilion presents two facades composed of hexagonal panels, each fit with a volume of different burrowing materials preferred by solitary native bees from densely packed tree branches to hollow bricks. The interior of the pavilion accommodates human occupation, complete with benches and storage cubbies built from the same hexagonal logic as the insect compartments outside.
Read more about this project in the Architizer database!


Photos: Stéphane Spach Photographe
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April 11, 2011

UC Berkeley Assistant Professor Ronal Rael discusses new ways to envision the border wall between the US and Mexico. “It would be easy for me to raise a picket sign and as an architect say, ‘Down with this wall!’ I have to accept the wall because it exists, but as a designer I see that something better is possible. Why not do something intelligent, something incredible?…a social infrastructure that connects and improves lives on both sides.” [via UC Berkeley]
Head over to the AIA’s website to count how many ways you can socially connect with them for their National Architecture Week. [via AIA.org]
Designer Jamie Hutchinson of the UK created “Bee Stations” as a way to reduce the stress on the honey bee population, offering “a comfy place [for bees] to rest and recharge with some sugar water.” [via Co.Design]
Critic Alexandra Lange addresses the domestic implications of Eero Saarinen’s Miller House, which we reported last week will open to the public this spring. Watch a video of the house here. [via Design Observer]
The second in a series of Lego architecture designed by the Danish toy company and architect Adam Reed Tucker is a model-size rendition of the Mies Van Der Rohe Farnsworth House. [via BD Online]

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