Fieldwork Design & Architecture Channels Bees for Portland Shop
Turns out, they’re quite the dancers. That fact turned up in research Fieldwork Design & Architecture did when conceiving the 1,750-square-foot retail space for Bee Thinking, a beekeeping supplier in Portland, Oregon. “The Waggle dance is part of the insect’s journey to finding nectar and pollen,” partner Tonia Hein says. It also informed the zigzag shape of the store’s central display/storage unit and LED pendant fixture above it, both in western red cedar.
Aside from the polished, sealed concrete floor, that wood predominates, either in its natural state or stained a dove gray, because that’s the material the Bee Thinking hives are made of. Having just won three IIDA Oregon chapter awards, the project led to a happy dance for the non-insects.