Bees
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About Bees : Bees are the most important pollinators in the environment. The constant loss in bees is becoming a constant threat to all life forms. Albert Einstein once said "If the bees disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live"
The drawing on the left hand side represent the swarm behaviour of bees and how they move in a group. The group of bees consist of drone bees with leader bees, they move in search of food and water. When a leader bee founds a food source, he comes back to the hive and take the rest of the hive with him, representing the location with respect to the sun's location. The (Bee)iodiversity project tries to establish two beehighways, one vertical and one horizontal. With three de-centralized beehives on each spot. If we consider the bees moving to these three spots and POLLEN falling from their hind-legs while moving, we would get this bee-pollen drawing. (Bee)iodiversity 04|1 Bees
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Up and Close with Bees:
To have these trajectories, we needed a bee-home on the site. Before designing the hive, it was important to visit one. Thanks to Alex Munoz for taking me to visit his hive above the Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona. Unfortunately there was no honey, bees where still building the wax but I got stung twice by a bee which was unexpected. For the design of the hive after talking with Alex, I undestood that the two most important thing for bees are constant temparature and sun.
Alex Munoz - Beekeeper 34
Window to check on the bees
Bees all the way
(Bee)iodiversity 04|2 Bees
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Design : To design the hive, it was important to understand why are bees declining and in what kind of environment bees love to stay. Some of the paramaters which bees love and hate are :
The basic form of the hive was deď€ rived from hexagon, as we know hexagon as a shape is the most modular shape and even the bees love hexagon shape
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Modifications to the original hexagoď€ nal planes
1. Height of the hive The preferred height of a beehive is above 5m, this is because bees move above 5m from the ground. So, the primary consideration of the hive was to have a tall structure and that's why the structure is 13m high, making easy access for bees to come and go and not get disturbed from neighbouring activities.
Intertwining them to each other, to get a tree trunk shape
The tree trunk shaped hive, would merge into the nature site and will be made up of wood
(Bee)iodiversity 05|1 Design
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2. Sun Bees love sun. They move with respect to sun, pass on the direction from one bee to another bee using sun as the center of movement. The preferred temperature of a bee hive is between 32-35 degree celsius, maintaining this constant temperature will also defend the hive from varroa parasite, the major cause of colony decline.
Panels opening and closing de
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The primary consideration was Sun. The form of the hive has circular panels which open and close depending upon the sunlight hours and sun location. The panels which face the sun during summer will be closed and the panels which face the sun in winters will be open. This strategy removes the consideration of orientation, as the hive could be oriented in any direction, but since the panel will open when the sun rises, the bees willl automatically know suns location.
epending upon the sun position (Bee)iodiversity 05|2 Design
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3. Material of the structure Bees like wood and thats why we see the usual bee hives being built with timber. The structure here is of timber form pine tree which is not treated with any solvent.
Inner core of the hive during summer season (21st June), where the number of bees are more
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4. Winters Winters are the hardest months for the bees to survive, as the temperature decreases the bees need to move their wings constantly with more speed to maintain the required temperature. To avoid this the designed hive, will reduce the size of the hive depending upon the number of bees in the hive using proximity sensors.
Inner core of the hive during winter season (21st November), where the number of bees are less
(Bee)iodiversity 05|3 Design
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5. Bees and Barcelona Bees and Barcelona have a long history : - During1954 and1960, 30th December was official day for the celebration of bees and their products.
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Map of Barcelona with past and present BeeHives
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- In the beginning of 1970's Barcelona went from exporting to importing honey. This has continued ever since then. - As of present Urban Bee keeping is banned in Barcelona, which has slowly started in different parts of the world like Paris, Berlin, London and New York.
Nineteenth Century 1 2 3 4 5
Today
Clot de la Mel (Honey Hollow) 6 Montjuic Statue near Font del Vell 7 Parc de la Ciutadella Llotja, Pla de Palau Monument to Frederic Soler, Pitarra Former headquartes Banc de Barcelona, La Rambla
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Connection between beehive locations and the site
(Bee)iodiversity just doesn't want to design a beehive but wants to re-introduce the idea of Urban Beekeeping in Barcelona. For which it wants to have a connection between the past and present hives in Barcelona. It wants a create a window from the designed beehive to the others, for the people of Barcelona to reflect upon what they have lost and to save what is existing.
(Bee)iodiversity 05|4 Design
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Final design of the Hive 44
6. What bees like Apart from Sun bees like shrubs like thyme, rosemary and sage. These shrubs will be grown on the exterior vertical wall of the hive. It will be inbetween the moving panels. This will also make the structure merge with the farming, that is already happening in the site.
Interior of the hive The 7 beehive locations of Barcelona become 7 viewing galleries in the hive. The first 5 galleries have a mesh outside with dead bees attached to it, to rethink of what we have lost as a human race. The interior of the hive shows the two contrast, the central core being the living hive and the outer core being the dead bee mesh.
(Bee)iodiversity 05|5 Design
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Image of the 3D printed model
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Image of the 3D printed model (Bee)iodiversity 05|6 Design
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5. Bees and Decentralization Instead of designing only one bee hive, the site will have 3 beehives at 3 corners of the site. This is in order that even if one beehive fails, the other two can function and help in pollination. The 3 beehives will be made up of 3 different materials pine tree timber, bamboo and transparent plexi glass.
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a - pine wood timber b - transparent plexiglass c - bamboo
Bee M
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ents F
rom T
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ive Ar
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The S
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(Bee)iodiversity 05|7 Design
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Conclusion It is a proven fact that bees are disappearing and declining and that number is increasing day by day. (Bee)iodiversity wants to increase bees, pollination and biodiversity by creating a comfortable and optimum environment for the bees. The idea is also to understand the importance of pollen which is the beginning of all life forms on Earth. The agenda is to promote urban beekeeping by educating people and creating awareness - by being in contact with bees, learning their habitats and trying to understand the various causes of their decline. The schemata is to study what kind of plant species are prefered by bees and then plant them, in and around people’s homes or on terraces, which in the long run reduce the economic burden caused by hand pollinated seeds. This first step to urban beekeeping might also inspire people to have smaller beehives in their homes, a trend that is slowly becoming more and more common in different parts of the world. The abundance of bees is a crucial indicator for the health of the wider environment as a whole. The more bees we see, the healthier the environment will be. Bees help sustain farmers. It will promote urban farming, and if urban beekeeping happens in every city, we will all have pictures like we see on the left hand side. It will be the time to fall in love with nature, celebrate the blooming of a flower, nurture nature and embrace nature. Hopefully, we will no longer see tree graffiti that instills sadness, and instead see more variety of real live trees. Biodiversity Bee, the youtube channel has already said that ‘Biodiversity begins with a B‘. It is time that we act on this slogan and make it happen in reality. ‘INCREASE BEES to INCREASE BIODIVERSITY‘.
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In love with nature at shenandoah national park Picture credits - Nikoleta Mougkasi
Celebrating nature
Picture credits - Nikoleta Mougkasi
(Bee)iodiversity 06 Conclusion
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Exhibit at the BeeHave exhibition at Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona
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References
Learning About Biodiversity : Extinction - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/25/ half-all-species-extinct-end-century-vatican-conference How to foster Biodiversity - https://e360.yale.edu/features/urban_nature_ how_to_foster_biodiversity_in_worlds_cities Biodiversity - https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/biodiversity-the-new-challenge-for-architecture Emma Marris Nature is Everywhere - https://www.ted.com/talks/emma_marris_nature_is_everywhere_we_just_need_to_learn_to_see_it#t-883463 How many species are we losing? - http://wwf.panda.org/our_work/biodiversity/biodiversity/ List of diverse Species : Travellers Nature Guide Spain - http://www.iberianwildlife.com/wildlife-books/travellers-nature-guides-spain/plants-fungi.htm Street Tree Managemnt Barcelona - https://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/ metadata/case-studies/barcelona-trees-tempering-the-mediterranean-city-climate/11302624.pdf Birds of Barcelona - https://iberianature.com/barcelona/geography-of-barcelona/birds-of-barcelona/ Animals and Plants in Spain - https://sciencing.com/animals-plantsspain-6388271.html Barcelona Wildlife - https://www.shbarcelona.com/blog/en/wildlife-of-catalonia/ Mammals of Spain - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mammals_of_Spain Pollinators : Learn About Pollinators - https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/ learn-about-pollinators/ Ten Collest Pollinators - https://www.earthrangers.com/wildwire/top-10/ top-ten-coolest-pollinators/ Pollinators favourable color - https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/ What_is_Pollination/syndromes.shtml#traits Sound - https://retired.sounddogs.com/extendedsearch.asp?keyword=humming+bird&ddCategory=-1 Nest Sites for Pollinators - http://xerces.org/providing-nest-sites-for-pollinators/ Fly Pollination - https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/animals/flies. shtml Underatanding Pollinators Trajectories : General - http://www.pc.rhul.ac.uk/staff/J.Zanker/old_web_stuff/teach_previous/PS3060/L2/Ps3060_2.htm Beetles - https://www.nature.com/articles/srep03158/figures/1 Beetles - https://www.nature.com/articles/srep03158 Butterflies - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1599857/ Honey Bee - https://www.nature.com/articles/srep32612 Ants - https://armyantsbiol2205.weebly.com/army-ant-foraging-behaviours. (Bee)iodiversity html-
07 References
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Representing Trajectories using Processing : Following Objects - https://forum.processing.org/one/topic/how-do-i-getobjects-to-follow-a-separate-moving-object.html Flocking Behaviour - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoKfQrlQ7rA&list=PLRqwX-V7Uu6YHt0dtyf4uiw8tKOxQLvlW&index=8 Coding Train - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvjgXvBlbQiydffZU7m1_ aw Pollen and Pollination: Pollination as Inspiration - https://thefinchandpea.com/2014/09/17/ the-art-of-science-pollination-as-inspiration/ Conversation with Wolfgang Laib - https://www.sculpture.org/documents/ scmag01/may01/laib/laib.shtml Pollination and Bees : Pollination by hand - http://www.dw.com/en/pollinating-by-hand-doing-beeswork/a-17822242 Bees and Biodiversity - http://www.beeodiversity.com/en/issue/issue-pollination-biodiversity-and-our-well-being What will happen if bees die tomorrow - https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/ d7ezaq/what-would-happen-if-all-the-bees-died-tomorrow Why honeybees dying is a problem - https://www.techly.com.au/2015/06/24/ honeybees-dying-big-problem-farmers/
Studying about Bees : Take care of Bees - http://www.beeculture.com/take-care-bees/ Sun or Shade for bees - https://honeybeesuite.com/sun-or-shade-which-isbest-for-the-bees/ Beginning Beekeeping - http://www.beginningbeekeeping.com/ManagingBeehives.html Making a bee hotel - http://www.foxleas.com/make-a-bee-hotel.asp Climate inside hive - http://eixams.cc/ Beehive Case Studies: Hive Talking - https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jul/09/tomas-libertiny-bee-living-sculpture Vulkan Beehive - https://snohetta.com/project/186-vulkan-beehive Skyscraper for bees - https://www.dezeen.com/2013/05/06/skyscraper-for-bees-by-university-at-buffalo-students/ Transparent beehive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMYKVo5D2Uk
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Beekeeper for an hour
Photo Credits: Alex Munoz (Beekeeper)
(Bee)iodiversity 07 References
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