Honey Factory | Francesco Faccin

Honey factory is a spot for producing honey, which contains the traditional beehives, to preserve the necessary equipment of its processing. But most of all, it’s an urban information point regarding the ancient and current bee keeping culture.

It protects the hives from bad weather while keeping a constant temperature and optimal ventilation. The big "chimney" which is a clear sign of the project, helps to keeps the entrance of bees far possible from children and possible vandalism moves, and actually the so-called "flight step" is usually placed a few centimetres from the ground, but in this case it’s 4.5meters high. Furthermore, a glass door protects the beehives meanwhile still allows an observation from a very close distance of the encoded movements and the mysterious "bee dancing".

Honey factory will play a role of educating and allowing citizens to approach a complex and fascinating world of insects, observing them, listening to the bee buzz. Through a processing of materials, bees create a rich, comprehensive and sustainable food without reworking, comes directly from the producer to the consumer. A hive with its swarm has an area of "foraging" up to a radius of 3 km, a distance completely compatible with a general urban park in our cities. It could be an actual center of the dissemination of food-sustainability culture, by giving courses, initiatives and demonstrations to the public, helping them to overcome the reluctance and prejudice against a very important insect for maintaining the biodiversity.

“Honey Factory” is also about the new role of designer, instead of collaborating with entrepreneurs of a traditional category, who now has much more to do with a very different client, working in new fields which are contemporary and less explored.

Since the very beginning Riva1920 accepted the project with enthusiasm and decided to realise the first functional prototype of the wooden house. Actually it can be considered as a real micro architecture that leaves a mark in the urban landscape where it’s placed. Riva1920 is wildly known for their concerning about the environment and focusing on human-wellbeing in their tangible and sustainable projects research. For these reasons, Riva1920 is the most ideal partner for HoneyFactory project.

Thanks to the collaboration of Mauro Veca, the professional beekeeper and urban farmer, I was able to work starting from accurate and reliable information, which is a key condition for an experimental project but scientifically correct. After the presentation at the Salone del Mobile di Milano 2015, Honey Factory will be put in use in the garden of the Triennale di Milano for six months during Expo.