Interior Design studio, The Shoreditch Vibe were asked to exhibit work within the KPMG offices Canary Wharf.
Date: 1 May 2014
Bee Habitat
It is well reported that the population of bees is in decline. The existence of bees is fundamental to our own survival as they play a major role in the propagation of crops. As citizens working and living in an urban environment we are perhaps not concerned with those issues associated with the countryside but this is a nationwide concern and we must all try to do something that sustains each and every bee variety.
Only 4% of bees belong to the honeybee varieties. The greater share consists of solitary bees, which live in small holes underground or in walls. They are attracted by a regular source of food and water and once that’s established they’ll find you.
The studio has been designing a hypothetical project for BT, the Shoreditch Exchange to adapt into a Co-worker space for media and tech businesses. Research looked at how office workers not only maintain a creative atmosphere but also how the journeys within the workspace help to develop business and social connections. Looking at the ingenious methods that bees have developed to find food, communicate and control their environmental conditions has been an inspiration to the studio. Bees provide a worthy analogy for Co-worker office spaces.
In Victorian times the bee was symbolic for working hard customs and indeed the floor of Manchester Town Hall is patterned with bee mosaics whilst Lloyds bank set great store by the bee’s symbol of thrift and honoured it’s London halls with bee motifs within its wood panelling.
Task:
Students were asked to devise a bee habitat made with organic biodegradable materials and if possible use found or recycled materials. Using basic woodworking skills they created habitats for specific bees and then sited them within the courtyard of the BT Shoreditch exchange.
Legacy:
The students visited Roots and Shoots in North Lambeth, an educational wildlife garden and met with Dave Perkins who is known as London’s Mr Bee. He delivered a wonderful lecture inspiring and amazing the students about the ingenious characteristics of the bee.
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