The BeeHive is designed as a cooperative / community center nested within the Lower Highlands suburb of Denver, Colorado. This space aspires to be the hive of the local community, an education and learning center, a cultural hub, a fully functioning cooperative, and much more.
The Hive, centered around the cycle of food production, is run by the people of this ethnically affluent community to educate anyone who wishes to learn or join the cooperative efforts. All generations are encouraged to participate in various events including after-school snack activities, cooking classes, crop production jobs, and farmer's markets. The design intertwines the community garden with this local greenhouse and serves their combined produce as a local outlet to enhance community relationships with healthy groceries.
The occupied space portrayed in this rendering is an outdoor farmers market that is placed directly below the hydroponic growing system of the cooperative. The indoor garden also stretches over the grocery store to give out an even more organic feel.
The purpose of this project is to instill education and history within the neighborhood and maintain the extensive cultural past through food production and cuisine while strongly encouraging neighbors of all ages to lend a hand. This brings the older and younger generations together at a personal level that has become almost nonexistent in the world of today. The jobs this cooperative generates also can help change the teenage community mentality of buying and eating food into a making and selling food outlook.
The above rendering is a night view of the cooperative resting the the Lo-Hi neighborhood of Denver, backed by the Rocky Mountains.
The aquaponics system will reduce water requirements by ten times in the agricultural system. The aquaponics diagram is shown in the lower right diagram. There are fish tanks filled with tilapia; which create waste product that is used by the system to feed the plants. The system then cycles the water back into filtration tanks, which then cycles the water back into the fish tanks.
The greenhouse space is designed to increase passive ventilation by capturing east to west winds. The design also maximizes sun exposure to reduce the need for mechanical heating. Photovoltaic film is used on the glass surfaces to absorb sunlight and convert it into physical energy that is put back into the structure. Piezoelectric crystals have been implemented under the turf surfaces in the farmers market area. When these crystals are crushed (by heavy foot traffic) it creates energy which also goes back into the hives electrical system.