The Beyond the Hive Competition that challenged designers to develop an ecologically sustainable and creative insect habitat recently announced its winners. London-based Arup Associates, one of the world’s great engineering firms have won the top Golden Beetle Award for their design of “insect hotel”. Constructed out of 25 layers of 20 mm-thick birch plywood, the bio-mimetic design is obtained by cutting out irregular voids by using a CNC machine.
These voids are then loosely bonded together on site with mechanical fixings, giving you the 1500 mm x 1500 mm hotel façade. Inspired from the voronoi pattern, an organic system of irregular shapes often found in nature, such as the wings of a dragonfly, the insect hotel makes a perfect green habitat from different types of insects. Each compartment is 500 mm-deep making a frame for different type of recycled waste materials, catering to various types of insects. The material will include rotting logs for stag beetles to allow their larvae to eat and grow, while a series of vertical slots using dry wooden pieces and tree barks with house butterflies and moths.
Via: Treehugger