While most architects are busy creating human residences, a group of architecture students at the University at Buffalo have designed "Elevator B," an urban home intended for bees. The miniature skyscraper is seven meters tall and features a steel facade of hexagon panels, paying homage to the insects' natural building patterns.
The tower was constructed in Silo City (a lot of abandoned grain silos near the Buffalo River) and introduces a step toward the area's redevelopment. The design was the winning proposal in a university-wide "Hive City" competition for planning a home for a colony of bees that had established their home in a boarded window of an old, unused office building. "Elevator B" houses the bees in a hexagonal wooden chamber near the top of the structure, while the compartment can be brought down to ground level through a system of pulleys that resemble the workings of an elevator. The cypress box features a glass bottom that allows humans to enter the tower and gaze up at the bees.
[via Dezeen]
