Because they work non-stop, bees – in the many varieties they come in everywhere – are among our chief suppliers of food, as much as one-third of food production in the world being dependent on pollination. They are also leading agents for keeping natural ecosystems balanced.

The Vulkan Bigard (Vulkan Beehive) project, located on the roof of the Mathallen food and dance center in Oslo, is the outcome of a collaborative effort of the architectural firm and various public entities and consultants to encourage honeybees to take up residence in the Norwegian capital and introduce beekeeping into urban habitats, not just for the purpose of enriching the flora in parks and other garden zones, but also to step up general societal awareness of the major role played by these busy insects.

The project presents a pair of tall honey-colored wooden beehives on a metal platform, treated like urban furniture elements of the kind set up at highly visible spots of the city, including roofs of buildings. Designed by means of parametric programs and constructed with sheets of local plywood, the hives take on bold faceted forms and their outer surfaces are decorated with patterns carved with a laser cutter and evoking, through distorted hexagons, the geometries characteristic of honeycombs...[+]