IKEA’s design lab, SPACE10, is sharing free plans to build a custom home for bees.
“I want people to design a dream home for bees that provides the perfect environment for their offspring, while at the same time being incredibly easy to design, assemble, and place,” says Copenhagen-based designer Tanita Klein. In celebration of the United Nations’ World Bee Day—today, May 20—Klein collaborated with SPACE10, IKEA’s research and design lab, to provide free open-source plans that allow anyone to make their very own residence for bees.
The Bee Home is composed of stacked blocks of wood, and the website guides you through the design process. You decide your bee home’s height, number of stories, and how it will interface with your home’s rooftop, garden, or balcony.
The Bee Home can be set up nearly anywhere outdoors. SPACE10 and Tanita Klein hope the open-source designs will raise awareness around bees’ impact on the environment and our daily lives.
Courtesy of Brendan Austin and SPACE10
The Bee Home website takes you through an easy step-by-step design process. Choose your home’s height, how many stories it will have, and whether it will sit directly on the ground, be hammered into soil with a single steak, or perch on stilts.
Courtesy of Irena Boersma and SPACE10
After choosing a design and registering your info, an interactive map shows you makers in your area. They’ll manufacture the parts, and then you put them together like Lincoln Logs.
Courtesy of Irena Boersam and SPACE10
See the full story on Dwell.com: Here’s How to Make Your Own Bee Home for World Bee Day
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