Growing intelligent beehives is a long term project, from mycelium and recycled waste straight into the final guerilla beehive shape. The purpose is to populate Brussels city with a network of intelligent guerilla beehives. These are beehives that offer shelter to a bee colony ‘in the wild’ – bee populations that are not domesticated but that are monitored from a distance in a non-intrusive way while they are collecting information about the urban environment.
The system is set up as a fully organic, cradle to cradle, circle.

If the bees decide to leave the hive in search for another home, the hive (with integrated electronics) will bio-degrade and compost completely.
The goal is to raise public awareness on ecological (biopolitical) problems in cities (case study Brussels) and to involve public participation in matters of biodiversity and ecology.

biology&technology
– organic beehives research (bee friendly form & materials)
– mycelium growing on waste substrates
– contact microphones integrated in test phases (artistic detail – the sound of the mushroom)
– biodegradable sensors integration

timeline
– preliminary inquiries 2014 : growing green fertilizers in the OpenGreens (to use as substrate for mycelium, e.g. corn cobs, rye, …)
⇒ extensive monitoring and documentation with full technological set up, open data, real time, instructables and real time streaming
– 2015 (spring) inquiry on shapes (collab. fablab) and mushroom spawn (mycologist)
– set up test lab at okno’s Drying Room early 2015
– start growing mycelium in several cycli, on several substrates, with several mushroom mycelium species and in several beehive shapes
– field testing with bee colonies in the organic beehives
– evaluations (experts)
– publications