In collaboration with David Leonard Abnormal created a procedurally generated low-cost 3D printed hive to enable anyone to pick up beekeeping. The hives are shipped with a colony inside ready to be attached to your window. They are manufactured in the UK using FDM 3D printers that allow for each hive to be different. Beeosphere aims to aid pollination, boost the number of urban bees and inspire young keepers. The project was featured by the Evening Standard and Reuters.
Through algorithmically developing the 3D model for Beeosphere we were able quickly iterate through several designs and fine-tune aesthetic and physical properties in realtime. The requested futuristic and organic aesthetic was achieved through mapping spheres to the vertices of platonic solids.
After the final aesthetic was decided on the 3D model was split to enable low-cost FDM printing of the hive. Abnormal adapted tooling by increasing the nozzle diameter to increase production speed and delivered this whole project in a matter of days.