Honey factory is the educational hive in the garden of Milan's Triennale, where visitors can observe bees up close and safely — accessible to the youngest visitors too.
Honey factory by designer Francesco Faccin is an urban hive that, as well as producing honey in the city, aims to serve as a tool for bee education. Created for an exhibition at SaloneSatellite 2015, commissioned by its creator and curator Marva Griffin, and produced by Riva 1920, the educational hive is currently on display in the garden of the Triennale di Milano, where, for the second year running, bee education workshops for children and adults have been organised. The structure was designed together with Mauro Veca, a very active beekeeper in Milan who, for several years, has been running small urban honey productions at Parco delle Cave and Parco delle Risaie, as well as promoting beekeeping courses for adults and children.
The primary goal is to reconnect people with bees, raising awareness but above all promoting urban beekeeping as an added value for cities. The bee is the most important pollinating insect, essential for the reproduction of plants and consequently for all living beings. In recent years, the decline in hives around the world has exceeded 50 per cent. Raising awareness about this problem is crucial.
A genuine wooden house for bees whose primary function is to serve as an educational hub and a centre for the dissemination of sustainable food culture. "It is the result of studying the internal spaces and many technical aspects: a mini-architecture designed to serve the life of the bees, the beekeeper and the observer," says Faccin.
The structure features a sloping roof and an entrance for one person inside. "The external space," its creator explains, "is defined by the interior: there is a genuine play of proportions between the bee's entrance and that of the human being." The landing board, usually a few centimetres from the ground, is here at four and a half metres in height — that is, at the top of the hive. The bees enter from there, laden with pollen after foraging, and visitors can observe them from outside, at very close range, as they work.
With an entrance set so high up, the hymenoptera are able to access it without ever coming into contact with anyone passing nearby; safety is absolutely guaranteed. A glass window makes the bees visible from outside as they go about making honey, offering a visual spectacle that simultaneously becomes an auditory experience thanks to the insects' constant buzzing. More technical aspects ensure that the structure maintains a steady temperature and continuous ventilation.
During the first six months of production, which coincided with Expo 2015, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the Università Statale di Milano collaborated on the project by examining the bees, the honey and the environmental conditions inside the structure. Despite the fact that the honey-and-city combination still fails to convince many residents, the quality of the honey produced in the heart of Milan is excellent. There is a greater presence of heavy metals in the city compared with agricultural areas, but in return there are far fewer pesticides and chemical substances used in farming. Furthermore, the strategic position right in the heart of Parco Sempione, one of Milan's largest parks, characterised by remarkable biodiversity, means that the bees visit flowers throughout the entire season — from February to around October–November — allowing for abundant and continuous production.
The Apepè workshop aims to introduce children to life inside the hive, to the bees' social organisation (the different roles of the queen, the drones and the worker bees) and to their great importance within the ecosystem, in a fun and engaging way. The figure of the beekeeper and their tools is also introduced, to convey their importance in safeguarding the environment. At the end of the workshop, there is a tasting of artisanal honey produced by the Honey factory bees.
The Honey factory model will be replicated in Seoul with the installation of twenty structures in parks, gardens and in the urban centre. A first hive is already in place inside the Children's Grand Park, having been introduced during the fifth edition of the Seoul Urban Agriculture Expo last May. In the South Korean capital, "there is a particular focus on raising citizens' awareness of green issues such as urban allotments and beekeeping," says Faccin. "By 2020, Seoul has set itself the goal of producing all of its food needs internally."
"The experience at the Triennale has been extremely useful for studying the flaws and strengths of what was initially just an idea on paper; by continuing to improve it and address various details, the goal is to make it a genuine piece of urban furniture, widespread in parks as a recognisable sign of the presence of bees." As ever, design is interesting when it brings people closer to nature, when the object becomes the vehicle that makes this relationship possible.