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Municipal Bees  (Master Thesis)

An Urban Wild Bee Guerilla


The master thesis Municipal Bees investigates the relation of man, nature and technology and tries to reintegrate nature in our everyday lives by inviting a part of undomesticated nature, the wild bee, into our urban habitats. By combining and experimenting with strategies and elements of both the technological and the biological realm, a concept of generative, 3D printed urban nesting interventions for wild bees was developed that is meant to act as an adapter between the untamed and the manmade world. Based on preceding research on the growing separation of man and nature as well as the wild bees’ specific needs and life styles, the resulting Hive Bomb project is an urban Wild Bee Guerilla that aims at the attraction of noncompliant behavior to motivate people to partake and save our bees, making use of the German law in a rebellious way.


The thesis is devided in a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part starts by investigating the relation of man and nature in regards to the growing separation between nature and the anthroposphere, the implications of the Anthropocene and the perception of urban 'pests'.
The following chapter examines the situation of honeybees and wild bees in Germany as well as the wild bees' distinct way of life and existential needs, focusing on those bees that nest in hollow channels. In the practical part, ways of interweaving technology and nature are explored in a series of considerations and experiments on function, material and form before the final project, Hive Bombs, was developed.

Experiment on Generating Form


You can find much more information and detailed descriptions of this thesis on the dedicated website, municipalbees.de, as well as on the website for the final Hive Bomb project, hivebombs.de. Please feel free to contact me at ae@annikaen.de if you have any questions or are interested in the full PDF version of this thesis.




You can also find this project on:  , municipalbees.de and digitalmedia-bremen.de.




Info

Year:  2017
Duration:  1 year (independent)
Category:  Product Design / Interaction Design / Parametric Design
Context:  Master Thesis at HfK Bremen
Supervisors:  Prof. Dennis Paul & Prof. Peter von Maydell

Exhibitions / Publications & Award: 
Keywords (EN): Wild bees, bees, undomesticated, nature, urban, city, habitat, design, product, speculation, parametric, generative, guerilla, environment, extinction, insects.
Keywords (DE): Wildbienen, Bienen, undomestiziert, Natur, urban, Stadt, Habitat, Design, Produkt, Spekulation, parametrisch, generiert, Guerilla, Umwelt, Aussterben, Insekten.