01. OVERVIEW
BEE / HOUSE / LAB, is an international design competition open to students and designers in the field of environmental design, architecture, landscape architecture, industrial design, and other related fields. The competition calls for a design of a bee house prototype that can be fabricated and deployed for field testing. Up to ten designs selected by the Design Jury will be fabricated (30 prototypes per design) and deployed (300 houses), to study their space-form-habitat performances.
The competition is hosted by the Office of Sustainability, and supported by the FABLAB at the Faculty of Architecture, the Department of Entomology and Parks Canada campus club, at the University of Manitoba. The University of Manitoba is committed to sustainable development and to using campus as a living lab. The university campus will be the primary deployment ground for the prototypes, and the results and the process of the competition will be published on various forms of media for the ongoing BEE LAB research and for the public awareness campaign purposes.
02. BACKGROUND
Pollinator communities, including solitary nesting bees, are under pressure from habitat loss from urban development and landscape management practices including pesticide use. Pollinators play a critical role in the health of ecosystems. Small changes to human practices and mindfulness about habitat preservation can have a significant positive impact on pollinators.
