Beetropolis: comb encounters of the third nature, Los Angeles by Alison Nash

BEETROPOLIS

comb encounters of the third nature: Los Angeles

Alison G. Nash Master of Architecture (Professional) Thesis Cornell University, Department of Architecture January 2014

Second edition September 2014 Printed by blurb Typefaces: Avenir and Poplar std. Book design by Alison Nash

Dedicated to the significant small of planet Earth.

PREVIOUS SPREAD:

Human Panorama, digital collage. October 2013

contents 9

INTRODUCTION

113

FORMAT | PRESENTATION

PRE-THESIS

20 21 23

Theme, Positioning Draft Proposal Final Proposal

116 145 157 171 187

Slide Show/ Script Final Review Maps Models Images Bee Research

FIELDWORK | PROCESS

197

BIBLIOGRAPHY

31 35

Summer Research Trip Blog: Meeting/Conversation

201

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

39 45

Cards: first review photos Cards

83 95 101

Mapping/ data mining Site maps The importance of play

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

INTRODUCTION 9

ften during the four months while I developed

Forty-eight million commercial honeybees travel

Beetropolis I was asked “are you designing

via tractor-trailer to California in February to

something for bees or for humans?” The answer

pollinate 780,000 acres of almond trees. These

was resoundingly “both!” as this assumed

iterant, commercially raised honeybees are

boundary between the built world of man and

responsible for pollinating about two-thirds of

the cultural construct of nature was the territory

our most nutritious fruits, vegetables, and staples

of my exploration and inquiry. Honeybees are

like cotton. Although important economically,

a powerful metaphor for the overlapping zone

these managed commercial colonies were not

and interconnection between nature and man.

of interest to my exploration of the littoral zone

These

between wildness and order in the city of Los

social insects can survive without us,

but we cannot survive without them as their

Angeles.

pollinating services are imperative for agricultural

Originally

production. Honeybee workers tirelessly collect

European colonists, wild honeybee colonies

pollen and nectar, but not for us; they can be

flourish in climates like Los Angeles where there

managed, but not domesticated.

are reportedly nine to eleven feral colonies per

imported

North

America

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

square mile. Wildness is familiar in a city like Los

natural systems. Acting as “cultural centers” the

Angeles where a mountain lion, after crossing

dispersed bee gardens and site-specific apiaries

Highway 101, continues to roam in Griffith Park,

of Beetropolis serve as

while a mediterranean climate provides optimum

language and behavior of the bee and enable the

conditions for all kinds of life, flora, and fauna.

cultivation of a dialog that is engaged with the

places to learn the

senses, reveals natural cycles, and encourages Local resources include an existing community of

wonder and delight.

honeybee enthusiasts: activists, beekeepers, and

hobbyists of Honeylove.org, and the Beekeepers

THIRD NATURE

Association of Southern California, and a loose

“Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” 1977,

patchwork privately owned but communally

was the first popular film to depict alien visitors

managed fruit and vegetable gardens. Los

as non-threatening. The title evokes a system of

Angeles has a surprising absence of space for

UFO classification that ranges from first encounter

public gathering, places where diverse groups, or

(sight), to second encounter (physical evidence) to

individuals, can gather and interact or be alone in

third (actual contact). Third Nature in the context

a crowd. These local resources or lack thereof led

of this project is conceived as manipulated

to the question of how can architecture facilitate

landscape, like a garden, concerned with beauty,

and structure a tactile and revelatory relationship

truth or reflecting culture. Second nature in this

between nature’s untamed wildness and humans

case can be defined as the manipulation of

in the public spaces of the future eco-tropolis?

natural systems by man for our own benefit. First nature remains the primordial, idealized nature,

Beetropolis: Comb Encounters of the Third

untouched by man, likened to the biblical garden

Nature weaves together existing human and

of Adam and Eve, virginal, pure, and lost forever

domesticated nature with the wild and feral by

to us. Both second and third nature presuppose

envisioning sites of natural intrastructure that

that nature, her systems and components can

reveal the interconnection and network pattern of

be used by man as a material for creation or

INTRODUCTION

Public parks, schools, community gardens dot the landscape of Los Angeles. Honeybee forage patterns ignore human boundaries creating a connective network of seemingly isolated patches. Los Angeles map, collage and drawing. September - December 2013

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

amplification of a new kind of nature (engineered

animals respond to physical and environmental

or bred), or the evocation and preservation of the

conditions without prejudice or preconceptions

image of first nature (pastoral landscapes, pristine

and without human responsiveness to symbols,

national parks).

meaning, history, and memory” (Stoner, 98). This act of “reterritorialization erases property lines

WILDNESS IN THE FUTURE CITY

and other abstract geometries; it introduces

In Jill Stoner’s, “Toward a Minor Architecture” she

mobility and blurs urban segments into newly

describes the “fundamental binary of nature and

integrated ecologies” (99).

culture” (10) as a distinction made by organized

power. As an example of this illusory distinction

Beyond the recognition of urban ecological

Stoner remarks that “rodents in our national parks

systems,

are protected; rats in our cities are exterminated.”

important to cultivation of care for our natural

In the city of Los Angeles in the fall of 2013,

infrastructures

Honeylove.org is working to legalize urban

Professor Louise Chawla, the international expert

beekeeping in the city of Los Angeles. Using

on urban children and nature, calls for “a common-

the model of other American cities, legislation

sense approach that recognizes the positive

in the past few years has allowed for cultivation

effects of involvement with nature on health,

of honeybee colonies, previously categorized as

concentration, creative play and a developing

pests and exterminated.

bond with the natural world that can form a

interaction

foundation

for

and

with

wildness

environmental

remains health.

stewardship.”

There is other evidence of the restructuring

When all we hear about the environment portrays

of nature’s place in American cities with the

nature as sick in need of restoration, and the

rise of understanding of urban ecology. The

planet as doomed to inevitable global warming,

reterritorilization of our cities densely packed

it seems impossible that human action can be

buildings with their “vertical distance and craggy

regenerative. As human habitation increasingly

footholds” by peregrine falcons is evidence that

becomes concentrated in urban areas, the

INTRODUCTION

interaction with the “loose tools” of wild,

entire time-scaled system and its supporting

uncultivated natural systems becomes imperative

components. For example, the design of furniture

to creating a bond with nature, inducing a sense

would include the support system of production

of wonder, and revealing our interconnection and

from seed to tree, to factory, to disposal.

interdependency with these systems. In

response

their

individual

sites,

the

NATURAL INFRASTRUCTURE

interventions are three examples of possible

Working as multiple time and spatial scales, the

realizations,

design of a natural infrastructure utilizes scientific

following the same system of design development.

research to understand local conditions. Infill

The process began with finding appropriate

conditions of small varied patches lead to stepping

site(s) that demonstrated a synergy between

stone connections, eventually connecting to form

existing natural networks and social communities

an ecological corridor. By allowing for biological

while revealing natural resources where they were 13

complexity with interventions of technological

seemingly nonexistent. Through mapping, dots

simplicity, future adjustment is permitted.

become points of a net when garden corridors

strategies

could

emerge

were discovered underneath high voltage power lines, and a density of vacant lots emerged as a neighborhood asset. ARCHITECTURE :: NATURE Building on the work of urban nature pioneers who have implemented small park interventions, If landscape is a metaphor for permanence at

rooftop and community gardens, Beetropolis

large, nature’s vast systems can be revealed

envisions landscape as an active participant in

through small interventions. The design of a

everyday life, not a framed, distant vista. A range

network ecology is akin to the design of an

of activities was envisioned for each Beetropolis

Patch to network diagram

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

garden: from tending a hive to walking in the

this case, order and purity of function are seen

garden, reinforcing that nature can be tactile-

as symptoms of the imperative of “usefulness”

can be tasted, felt, touched. Engagement with

in design, therefore directly tied to channels of

activitites reveals the underlying network of

capital and power. Power struggles in nature

resources on which both honeybee and human

are dealt with through restoration of system

depend for nourishment.

equilibrium through violence, reproduction, and constant change. Embedded in the complex web

The idea of site was expanded to include many

of an ecosystem, a predator may seem to be in

small interventions; making the project legible as

kingly control, but in fact is interdependent on

an interconnected network instead of a singular,

many other species and environmental resources

repetitive module.

for survival.

Many approaches to “solving” the puzzle of climate change and an uncertain ecological future assume that efficiency and technological optimization will yield all the results we need for a better future. Overlooked in many schemes for local food production are the pollinators who are necessary for its success. In addition, the time scale of form and function in nature is not recognized.

Evolution looks backward, at the

present moment there exist adaptations that have not been proven optimal for species reproduction. A pure correlation between function and an This fragmented approach to site and an embrace

organism’s complex form on every scale does not

of wildness implies architectural disorder. In

exist at a single moment in time.

Site diagram: Enclosed Nature “Zoo” and Networked Ecology site types.

Networked ecology site approach develops many small interventions recognizable as part of a system.

INTRODUCTION

HONEYBEE COLONY AS AMBASSADOR

and its seasonal assets. When collected in small

By designing an environment for man AND

batches, the taste, smell, and color varies by not

honeybees, the role of the pollinator reveals our

only which flowers are in bloom but also by which

connection and dependence on natural systems.

flowers the bees chose to visit. Honey is the sun’s

Like “pouring flour on a ghost” this project seeks

energy and flower reproduction in an edible form,

to establish the presence of the tiny honeybee,

transformed by honeybees into nourishment.

the colony, and her hive to illuminate that their presence is integral to the human community. Serving

“cultural

centers,”

Beetropolis

structures the interaction between human and honeybee through didactic architecture, leading to understanding through form and space. The first steps in development of this project were understanding the life cycle and needs of the honeybee as well as the history of human cultivation of honeybee colonies in order to reveal the private life of honeybees, their perception, and their knowledge through architecture. The discovery of “bee space,” a gap of appx 3/8 inch that honeybee workers will not build across, led to the development of the moveable frame hive, allowing humans to harvest honey without

SITE ONE Stanford Ave. and E. 111th, Stanford Avalon Community Garden power corridor // observation tower apiary // forage

Dual towers rise above the community garden corridor. Like humans who prefer walkable neighborhoods

cities,

honeybees

prefer

compound flowers that enable them to collect a lot of nectar by walking. Feral honeybees prefer high nesting sites, a preference that allows for human visitors to avoid crossing the “bee line” or column of forages entering and exiting the hive entrance. SITE TWO East 97th Street, Watts and Industrial RR Corridor hive // flower apiary // bee sense // perception

The honeybee worker lives most of her life in the

destruction of the entire colony.

dark interior of the hive, using smell, taste, and

Honey is a manifestation of the local neighborhood

nectar sources in relation to the sun. Born with an

vibrational dances to communicate the location of

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

understanding of the sun, seasons, and weather,

the curatorial works of Hans-Ulrich Obrist, I sought

only in the last weeks of life do the workers spend

to set up of structures or “machines” that could

their days outside the hive foraging for nectar.

have a life of their own. The development of the

SITE THREE South Central Vacant Lot: Residential gnomon // sun // apiary // dance language // weather

Honeybee foragers

known as “marathon

dancers” have been observed dancing the waggle dance in the dark hive with accuracy of the the sun’s position, continuing through the night when the sun is hidden behind the earth. A tall gnomon casts a shadow across the site like 16

a sundial while serving as a beacon for the site’s location for the surrounding neighborhood. PROCESS This book serves as a document of my process over the past year, during both the pre-thesis research course in the spring and the thesis project development in the fall. Fieldwork was conceived of as a frame to organize both design research through modeling, drawing, and testing ideas. Research also encompassed site visits, reading, and documentation of discoveries using square index cards. Inspired by

project became a complex, dynamic system with feedback loops. As such, failures became a vital feature of the “learning system.” Site visits to homes of Los Angeles beekeepers, interviewing

urban

beekeeping

activists,

and presenting my ideas to the Beekeepers Association of Southern California served to ground the project in the reality of the place and human community. Beginning with the large scale mapping of Los Angeles resources with a goal understanding landscape

scale

from

ecology

the

neighborhood, drawing led to the discovery of existing urban gardening practices, and local farmers markets. Mapping of real data and information was an important exercise to establish criteria for site selection. In conclusion, a thesis is not a creative act, it is not a “piece.” The framing of the thesis is the creative act, the rest is work.

Towers mark the existence bee colonies in this early conceptual collage Bee towers in Los Angeles, collage. September 2013

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

‘NATURE’ IS SIMPLY ANOTHER 18TH- AND 19THCENTURY FICTION. - Robert Smithson from “A Musuem of Language in the Vicinity of Art” (Art International, 1967)1

PRE-THESIS 19

The following pages contain excerpts from my Individual Design Research Agenda compilation, completed during ARCH 8911 Thesis Proseminar, Spring 2013, led by Professor Werner Goehner, with Teaching Assistants Andrew Hart and Rodney Bell.

Three themes were initially identified in the Probe One exercise: Minor Architecture2 (referencing Jill Stoner’s work of the same title), Situationist Redux (Guy Debord’s “Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography”3), and Built Nature (Alan Berger’s “Drosscape”4).

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

From these preliminary themes, an early position statement emerged:

I am interested in a renovation of architecture’s recent agendas of “techno-virtuosity” and “eco-ethics.” Seeded by a questioning of the technocratic emphasis of performance metrics as the singular solution for the salvation of our collective future, and inspired by the ideas discussed in Towards a Minor Architecture by Jill Stoner, I am interested in exploring the territory of minor speciﬁcally in wasted urban spaces (drosscapes), or within typologies of power to reveal the possiblities of re-terrritorialization and breaking down the binary construction of man/ nature.

DRAFT PROPOSAL (excerpts) 1.0 Title of Thesis Re-territorializing the eco-metropolis: wastescapes as public space OR places of mobility as sites of understanding the ecology of the city. 1.1 Proposition | Synopsis Small scale intervention either linear in

The next step in the formulation of my final thesis was to draft a preliminary proposal. The process of presenting this proposal to my peers in the format of a slide show, and the resulting discussion was an important exercise in the development of a clear line of questioning. Another seminal step in my thesis idea was to empty my head of all ideas into a written freeform list. A subsequent chat about the various ideas with the TA Andrew Hart planted the seed in my mind that apiaries and bees would not only be a fun and enjoyable thesis topic, but could serve as a framework for the line of inquiry and my agenda that had emerged during pre-thesis explorations.

ABOVE: Olafur Eliasson, 2011. Seu Corpo da obra/ Your Body of Work.

PRE-THESIS

form (acting like a physical connector) or deployable pods/ stations that connection with each other through experience of their action. Examples: food truck pods, listening stations, linear parks, benches, night sky viewers, mobile napping units, agri-tecture (a combination of architecture and agriculture). 1.2 Problematic • What are the

physical

and

•

urbanistic

•

ingredients that define a vital public place? A realization/ demonstration of the wildness of nature based on a reading that nature is not a background but a material that can be used in structuring or subverting an environment. How can architecture act to undermine power of the economically elite by creating a new kind of public space —a place where difference can interact on an equal plane or where individuals can interact with natural systems— instead of the act of viewing nature as a palliative? Can architecture set the table/ design the stage to encourage these interactions? The experience of art as a positive urban 21 experience: can this experience act as infrastructure? As a server system for a place of public discourse for the collective.

1.3 Framing “What are the characteristics of good public space and to what extent can good public space be artificially created?” 5 “The social, political, technological, and economic developments, industrially executed wars, as well as the notion that it lies in the hand of mankind to destroy the earth with weapons of mass destruction, have destroyed the idea of nature as something presupposed and inexhaustible. Nature is understood as a fiction.” 6

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

ENDNOTES 1. Smithson, Robert, and Nancy Holt. 1979. The writings of Robert Smithson: essays with illustrations. New York: New York University Press. 2. Stoner, Jill. 2012. Introduction from Towards a Minor Architecture. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

3. Debord, Guy. 1955. “Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography.” from Knabb, Ken. 1981. ed. 2006 Situationist International Anthology. Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets 4. Berger, Alan. 2006. ”Drosscape” from Waldheim, Charles, ed. 2006. The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 5. Hajer, Maarten and Reihndorp, Arnold. 2001. “The Public Domain as Perspective” from In Search of New Public Domain, Analysis and Strategy. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers. 6. Ursprung, Philip “Nature and Architecture” from Sauter, Florian. ed. 2007. Architectural Papers III Natural Metaphor: An Anthology of Essays on Architecture and Nature. Barcelona/ New York: Actar.

pre-thesis proposal 23

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

COMB ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD NATURE: LOS ANGELES (title) PROPOSITION (description) Assumption: nature in urban environments is often characterized as a distant view of landforms or wilderness, as pests, or the weather. Could human designed apiaries operate as an interface device for substituting the primarily visual framing of represented nature with tactile and auditory encounters that signal both wildness (fear) and pleasure (sweetness)? Like gardening, beekeeping practice reveals an understanding that nature is both a material and a representation of culture that humans can manipulate in a benevolent manner. The project of designing 24 small-scale infrastructures (habitat structures, pollen sources, mobile honey production facilities) for the threatened honeybee in an urban context to facilitate honey production is envisioned as an instrument for recognizing our position in ecological systems and as an interface of public mixity in American horizontal urbanism, particulary in social and physical contexts where life-enhancing human :: wildness/sweetness interactions are lacking. POSITION (frames, implications, field connections) “If nature is a presupposed entity, but a product of human projection, then it is something else than a backdrop against which architecture takes place or a raw material that becomes articulate through architecture. The fact that nature can be represented, that it can be reflected through

an image, a text, or a semiotic system, also contains the option that it can be modified and manipulated.”1 Frames: panorama and the petite, projection and proximity, public and the private, performance and practice. Implications: by designing for the honeybee in combination with human needs, the project reveals ecological systems, a new model of public space, and maps the network infrastructure on which both the honeybee and human depend for nourishment. Field connections: landscape architecture’s conception of site with porous boundaries connected to watershed hydrology, habitat, migration corridors, ecologies, and other seasonal, diurnal, and annual flows. Concern with the ecological future of cities, urban ecology. PROCESS (tools, methods) • Research, understand

ABOVE: Honeybees and honeycomb

the

life

the

PRE-THESIS

projective and actual, performance and practice, storyboarding, and filmic formats.

•

• •

honeybee and human interactions with harvest, production, tools. Map network, distances of existing and potential pollen resources: private gardens, public parks, urban farms, and vacant spaces of wildness. Projective drawing methods and GIS mapping, site analysis to construct the site(s) and reveal potentials. Using drawing, test site(s) that fulfill community connections and public space agenda against habitat considerations. Interviews with apiology experts, plant scientists, and beekeepers to further understand honeybee ecology in local conditions. Compare potential designs and scenarios against conventional structures/ methods. Fieldwork methods include documentation of sites using video and still photography and sound recording. Potential presentation methods play with

PROBLEMATIC (questions) Desire 1: A realization and demonstration of the wildness of nature rooted in the interpretation that nature is not a background but a material that can be used in structuring or subverting the cultural opposition of MAN and NATURE. Desire 2: Collapse of projected and actual, foreground and background: awareness of the middle ground. Desire 3: Can architecture structure an erosion of the hegemony of the economically elite in designed public spaces in America by creating a new kind of collective yet diffused public 25 space (that takes sprawl and drosscape2 as given conditions) —a place where difference can interact, where individuals interact with natural systems— instead of the passive act of viewing nature as a palliative? Desire 4: Revelation of myths of first nature (raw, untouched wilderness), second nature (cultivated landscape), third nature (network of connections over distance/ telesthesia) or gardens/ combination of nature and culture), and fourth nature (mediated landscapes of artificial and ecological flows). PLACE (site) LOS ANGELES Los Angeles possesses a mythic and iconographic status as the original American city of horizontal urbanism by reputation and through its construction and (re)construction in film3 in

ABOVE: Los Angeles, California

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

addition to the realities of its drive-thru’s, freeways, and other architectures of the four ecologies.4 The present-day city’s position near industrial agriculture, its diverse topology, ecology and habitats, threat of destruction by fire, water, or earthquake, along with the cognitive image of the city produced and constructed through the visual and temporal medium of film is a rich territory for investigations. What are the ways a minor player (the honeybee) becomes a metaphor for, frame of, and character in deconstructing the binary of man and nature in a place saturated with contemporary myth? Site(s): Multiple locations that result from mapping methodology process of uncovering potential “wastespaces” or drosscape/discarded 26 infrastructure that could be re-configured for another use. Research/ analysis methodology central to discovery and testing of various sites. Scale/ quantity: no more than six and no less than two. Sites could be the following types: 1. existing major architecture5 (interventions modeled on wild inhabitations of existing discarded or unattended structures) 2. site pregnant with historic, economic, or cultural meaning to offer resistance to typical model of public space as sanitized and bland.6 3. a drosscape2 of the wasteful space type 4. abandoned municipally owned lots adjacent to existing residential or commercial neighborhoods.

PROGRAM (agenda) Analytical agenda: to research and understand the life of a honeybee, its habitat requirements and factors influencing the production of honey and to facilitate its service to humans as a pollinator. To see Los Angeles through the lens of a honeybee in order to select appropriate sites. The analysis and research will result in site selections that meet several criteria (social, cultural, and ecological). Socio-Political agenda: to reveal the cultural construction of nature in order to hybridize urban public space with productive social and cultural space. A social agenda to combat food deserts and re-weave human connections to ecology through food production is a secondary territory of the project.7 Tropical agenda: to develop a rhetorical capacity for intelligibility that transcends autonomous form-making: an ability to derive meanings through non-disciplinary associations. Apiary site and construction as lens, frame, and social condenser. Apiaries will most likely be stationary habitats however the production facilities necessary for the filtering, processing, and canning of honey will be mobile. Territory is also the identity of Los Angeles: both projected and actual, its local villages, neighborhoods, border crossings, and filmic selves.

PRE-THESIS

PASSAGES CITED (selected references) 1. Ursprung, Philip “Nature and Architecture” in Sauter, Florian. ed. 2007. Architectural Papers III Natural Metaphor: An Anthology of Essays on Architecture and Nature. Barcelona/ New York: Actar. 2. Berger, Alan. 2006. “Drosscape” in Waldheim, Charles. ed. 2006. The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 3. “Los Angeles Plays Itself” 2003, a documentary style film by Thom Andersen that uses film clips to explore the myths and realities of Los Angeles. 4. Banham, Reyner. 2009 edition, 1971. Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 5. Stoner, Jill. 2012. Introduction from Towards a Minor Architecture. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Major architecture is defined as the architecture of state and economic authority, concerned with the expression of power: in the 20th c. Soviet Communism, National Socialism, and late capitalism. 6. Hajer, Maarten and Reijndorp, Arnold. 2001. “Public Space and Cultural Policy” in Search of New Public Domain, Analysis and Strategy. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers. 7. “Guerrilla Gardening in South Central Los Angeles” (http://on.ted.com/Finley), in the LA Times: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/20/local/la-me-0821-lopez-garden-20110818 and also “Urban Beekeeping in Los Angeles” (http://youtu.be/PjiePi0_Nh4)

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

PHOTO: http://onestronghive.files.wordpress. com/2013/09/20130912-120631.jpg?w=540

FIELDWORK 29

Heart shaped honeycomb in Silver Lake, 2013 Walker Rollins, onestronghive.org

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

summer research trip 31

My trip to Los Angeles, CA was for approximately one week. Research was conducted prior to the trip both to uncover potential contacts to interview and sites to visit. A detailed itinerary was drafted and a Google “my places” map was saved with information such as opening hours and phone numbers. I joined several Yahoo groups, (Backwards Beekeepers, and BASC), and contacted the non-profit Honeylove. I discovered in this process that several local beekeepers and urban beekeeping activists were eager and willing to meet with me during my visit. I also was asked to present my project to an enthusiastic group of beekeepers at the monthly meeting of the

Beekeepers Association of Southern California. I wanted to make contacts “on the ground,” people whose experiences can help me realize my architectural ideas, and whose expertise will be reflected in the technical aspects of my design. While in Los Angeles, I was also interested in getting a feel for the neighborhoods, the urban fabric, and seeing some of the architectural sights that I hadn’t seen on previous trips. Everywhere I went I looked at the plants for honeybees and saw them in the most unexpected places: at the tar pits, at a Chevron gas station. On the following pages is a detailed itinerary of what I saw and whom I met with while in LA.

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

MEDIA AND FORMATS OF FIELDWORK Formats: Extensive photos, some video, handwritten notes and sketches. Output: • Flickr photostream1 • Blog2 about my trip and other discoveries • Several “my places” Google maps, some to document sites visited and meeting places, others to document possible sites for my project. These maps are linked to the blog listed above.

ITINERARY MONDAY JULY 22

GETTING THERE Afternoon departure from ITH to PHL, PHL to LAX. Flight to LAX cancelled, rebooked for 7/23 at 14:30. Spent night in hotel near PHL airport.

TUESDAY JULY 23

REALLY GETTING THERE Afternoon departure from PHL to LAX

WEDNESDAY JULY 24 INTRODUCTION TO LOS ANGELES ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY, HONEYLOVE 1100 - 1230 Schindler House and MAK center tour. (835 North Kings Road, West Hollywood) Exhibition: Everything Loose Will Land, curated by Sylvia Lavin. 1230 - 1330

Lunch at Farmer’s Market, “The Original” (6333 W 3rd St, Los Angeles)

1330 – 1500

La Brea Tar Pits, LACMA from the exterior (closed on Wednesdays)

1700

Meeting with Rob McFarland of Honeylove.org (5950 W Jefferson Blvd. #8, Culver City/ Los Angeles) Purpose? to meet and make a connection with Honeylove. NOTES (1) http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthcarver/sets/ (2) http://thesisproseminar.wordpress.com

FIELDWORK

1900 – 2100

Attend BelAir/ Beverly Crest Neighborhood meeting (12601 Mulholland Dr, Santa Monica Mts. National Recreation Area, Tree People conference room) Purpose? To see another neighborhood of Los Angeles, understand local politics, observe an affluent neighborhood in action. The council was voting on a motion to send a letter to their LA council district representative encouraging the legalization of urban beekeeping.

THURSDAY JULY 25 1030 – 1200

GATHERING BEEKEEPERS IN LOS ANGELES Meeting with Walker Rollins, beekeeper whose husband teaches architecture (digital fabrication) at USC, also met Kirk Anderson. (Bancroft Ave, Los Angeles)

1200 – 1300

Explore Silverlake to Echo Lake neighborhoods, visit Elysian Fields Community Garden

1300 – 1400

Taco lunch with Steven Chodoriwsky near Echo Park, Santa Monica Blvd.

1430 – 1630

Geffen Contemporary MOCA “New Sculpturism” exhibit (Downtown LA, near Little Tokyo)

1630 – 1800

Drive to La Mirada from downtown LA

1830 – 2030

Monthly meeting BASC (Beekeepers Association of Southern California) (La Mirada Civic Center, 13710 La Mirada Blvd.) Presented my thesis project idea to appx 40 beekeepers with question and discussion period following. Stayed for their business meeting (which dealt with the upcoming LA County fair), and their bee discussion- an open question and answer period by weekly subject.

FRIDAY JULY 26

LAKE ARROWHEAD Day of rest, family visit to Lake Arrowhead

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

SATURDAY JULY 27 1030 – 1300

WATTS TOWERS Visit to Watts neighborhood to see Watts Tower Arts Center, the park and tour the towers. Family visit to Mission Viejo and San Clemente

SUNDAY JULY 28 1200 – 1300

THE UNUSUAL AND IMAGINATIVE: PROJECTIONS AND PROJECTS The Velaslavasay Panorama (1122 West 24th St, Los Angeles)

1300 – 1400

A+D Museum exhibition “Never Built Los Angeles” (6032 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles)

1500 – 1700

Meeting with Mark Hardin, beekeeper (Auckland Ave, North Hollywood) Purpose: to observe the urban fabric of an ethnically diverse “middle-class” neighborhood and make a connection with a new beekeeper whose career is a robotic camera operator and has lived in LA since 1978.

MONDAY JULY 29 1100 – 1200

THE BUILT FABRIC: DOWNTOWN MONUMENTS Docent guided tour of Los Angeles City Hall

1230 – 1600 Walking downtown LA, lunch at Grand Central Market, visit to lobby of Bradbury Building, Cal Trans building, Olvera Street, Union Station, El Pueblo. 1630 – 1800

Dinner at San Antonio Winery, Los Angeles

1800 – 1900

Drive to hotel near LAX

TUESDAY JULY 30 0630 1714 – 1818

GOING HOME Depart LAX for PHL PHL to ITH

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blog: meeting/ conversation The blog format was used as a notebook to collect on-line content and was envisioned as a tool to continue to communicate with the beekeepers and activists I met on my summer research trip. The blog served as a notebook to jot down ideas, link to video, and as a portal for in-process maps created using Google’s “my places” and on-line map making tools. An excerpt from the blog is included on the following pages. A secondary way to keep my ear to the ground and to field questions that emerged in the design process was to subscribe to several yahoo group forums: BKASC (the Beekeeper’s Association of Southern California), and Backwards Beekeepers (founded by Kirk Anderson). The conversations that unfolded in these online forums informed my understanding of local beek culture while I learned

about the everyday challenges of managing 35 honeybee colonies. In October, the Backwards Beekeepers closed their doors, not from lack of interest, but because of overwhelming response. Honeylove.org migrated the yahoo forum to their own website where the conversations are still flowing. In Ithaca, I had face-to-face conversations with Michael Griggs, the beekeeper who supplies the honey for Manndible Cafe and works as an Entomologist/ Support Scientist for the USDA/ ARS, and Thomas Seeley, Professor of Biology in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. Professor Seeley is an expert in honeybee behavior and author of the books The Wisdom of the Hive: the social physiology of honey bee colonies and Honeybee Democracy.

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

BEES in LA: Day Two ( am)

This morning I met with Walker Rollins, a beekeeper who lives in Silverlake. After chatting a bit about beekeeping and my thesis ideas, she showed me all the hives she has in various places around the neighborhood. It was also my luck that the guru of urban beekeeping in LA, Kirk Anderson, happened to be visiting Walker.

received calls about 100 hives located at the structural movement joints between column and underside of the road at the two freeway interchange in Glendale.

He was full of local beekeeping stories: how he has seen honeybees making hives in any old crevice from refrigerators, file cabinets, dressers, coolers, water meters, even the dusty inside of an old tractorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tire. When I asked if siting apiaries near freeways was a problem for the bees, he told me of several hives that had been thriving on Solano Canyon in Chinatown (near 110 or Arroyo Seco Parkway) for 15 years and shared that Glendaleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 911 had PHOTOS Honeybee entrance, Alison at Silverlake reservoir fence, and Apiary in the shade, Silverlake. Shawn Reeves 2013

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Afterwards, Shawn and I walked around the reservoir to get a sense of the common green space in the neighborhood. The chain link fence was in stark contrast to the fluid nature of the privately owned spaces that were trespassed by mutual neighborly agreement.

us, there may be some failures in it: what you see may not be what you are hearing about being discussed. However, as a memory jogging device, as a notebook, the video serves a function.

Shawn shot a video of our walk through Walkerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s apiaries, which I have shared below. The video is really more of a note-taking device for me, a kind of fieldwork, than a polished, informativefor-everyone video. As it was an experiment for

VIDEO LINK Fieldwork Los Angeles, Silverlake. http://vimeo.com/72214016

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ABOVE Formation of honeycomb

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cards 39

As the fall semester began, I introduced the project and my thesis ideas to my advisors, and made a few collages. These early explorations built on my pre-thesis ideas. I began my research in earnest with the goal of understanding my â&#x20AC;&#x153;client.â&#x20AC;? Index cards measuring 5 inch by 5 inch were chosen as note-taking devices to translate what I was learning about the life and behavior of the honeybee into a visual format. The benefit of the small cards was that the information could be

categorized and re-assembled in multiple ways. The following pages represent a selection of these research cards. These cards were presented at the first thesis review on Wednesday, October 2nd. Simultaneously, I was conducting map-based research using GIS tools and data sets. The mapping exercises are discussed in the next section.

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IMAGES First Thesis Review Installation, October 2, 2013. Sibley Hall Room 144

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

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IMAGES First Thesis Review Installation, October 2, 2013. Sibley Hall Room 144

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

CARDS

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16 mm

three times actual size size three times actual

actual size size actual rangerange 15-17 mm mm 15-17

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12 mm

three times actual size size three times actual

actual size actual size range 10-15mm mm range 10-15

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20 mm

three times actual size

actual size actual size range 16-22 mm range 16-22 mm

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Pure geometry in landscape, collage

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unhatched eggs brood larvae sealed pupae 6,000 9,000 20,000

workers 50,000

drones 500

queen 1

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Typical colony population size during nectar ﬂows. Each “bee” represents 1,000 individuals. During the dearth, the worker number decreases and drones are absent.

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Honeybees respond more to color cues than scent in ďŹ nding their home apiary.

after Karl von Frisch, The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees, 1967.

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Shapes that can be distinguished easily and certainly by bees.

Bees cannot distinguish the shapes in the top row, nor between those in the bottom row. But they can distinguish those in the top row from those in the bottom.

after Karl von Frisch, The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees, 1967.

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Unlike humans, honeybees can see into the ultraviolet spectrum. Landing patterns on ďŹ&#x201A;owers are visible in the UV wavelengths.

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1. 2. 3.

Swarm behavior. Hive is populated and forage sources are strong. New queen cells are laid. Swarm of workers leave the hive with the old queen. Scouts search for new location and â&#x20AC;&#x153;voteâ&#x20AC;? on best location. New queen hatches in old hive and old queen and workers take up habitation in new location.

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A honeybee swarm: a hiveless, homeless and docile cluster waiting for scouts to ďŹ nd a new dark space.

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Queen cell forming on honeycomb

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The structural efďŹ ciency of honeycomb

after Karl von Frisch, The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees, 1967.

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APIS MILLIFERA USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab macrophotgraphy available for public use here: http://www.ďŹ&#x201A;ickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/sets/

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APIS MILLIFERA

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Peephole to bees in tree, collage

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Bee space was discovered in 1851 by Reverend Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth. All modern multi-frame apiaries use this principle to allow lifting one frame at a time, enabling the harvest of honey without destruction of the colony.

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Film still collage from Blow-Up, an Antonioni ďŹ lm from 1966. In this moment, the fashion photographer discovers that he unknowingly witnessed a murder which is documented in his photographs.

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Relationship between comb formation, nectar ďŹ&#x201A;ow, and temperature.

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Focus, collage

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Panorama, collage

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Honeybee and Los Angeles, collage

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Bee Peephole, collage

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Tower Excuse, drawing

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Waggle Dance, sketch on card

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The waggle dance. after Karl von Frisch, The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees, 1967.

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Circulation diagram: honeybee to ďŹ&#x201A;ower and back to hive, collage and drawing

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Los Angeles skyline as cave, collage

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comb from below

The World of the Honeybee, digital collage

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mapping data mining 83

Mapping was very important in the selection of sites and in realizing program opportunities. Drawing became a way to understand the large scale landscape by isolating topography, hiding streets, freeways, and municipal boundaries. Secondary uses of maps were to discover programmatic synergies that were important to the project. Google maps was used both for satellite imagery and for note-taking by gathering data from multiple sources easily. Data sets were used from the county of Los Angeles for building heights, land elevation,

hydrography, and other physical features like reservoirs, streets, and freeways. An excel sheet of community gardens in the city of Los Angeles was first mapped using Googleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s map making tools to locate the gardens, then this information was translated into drawings. Also, a paper road map of the city of Los Angeles from 1994 laminated to a sheet of chipboard served as a sketch that was built upon throughout the semester.

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The following maps feature overlaid wind roses from the three climate zones in the city of Los Angeles during spring, summer, fall, winter, and annually. The three climate zones CA-6, CA-8, CA-9 are indicated in the map detail above.

Building Climate Zone Map

PDF available from California Energy Commission (www.energy.ca.gov)

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Spring prevailing winds map in southern Los Angeles county

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Summer prevailing winds map in southern Los Angeles county

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Autumn prevailing winds map in southern Los Angeles county

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Winter prevailing winds map in southern Los Angeles county

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Overlay of annual prevailing winds map in southern Los Angeles county

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Los Angeles features dramatic topography with young mountains, a wide valley and a dramatic coastline. Without the streets and freeways, the landforms are clearly visible, allowing a reading of the landscape as a total system without the distraction of municipal boundaries and transportation systems. Tools/ Method: GeoTIFF PDFs downloaded from USGS, smaller quadrant maps were compiled into a large topographical map using Illustrator. The following pages are details of the map on the right.

Los Angeles County Map

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Los Angeles County Map (detail)

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Los Angeles County Map (detail)

site maps 95

On the following pages are site maps presented at the second thesis review. The first maps show the city owned public parks or open space in the county of Los Angeles. For such a large land area, only a net of small dots are publically accessible open space. For a city of its size, the public open space for people not in cars is surprisingly small.

At the second thesis review, I presented seven potential sites. Three of these sites were developed to a presentation level for the final review.

Los Angeles County open space map

Los Angeles County open space map (detail) 97

Preliminary Site Map

Preliminary

Site Map

100

the importance of play 101

Process work is important in how it can serve as a check, a test, and as a reminder of a kernel of an idea. Different tools yield discoveries that can feed into each other. Some become dead ends while others remain a manifestation of a thin grasp onto an idea. Paper models served as a quick way to test out ideas through play.

desperation, I violently broke pieces from the sheet in an attempt to salvage something. The â&#x20AC;&#x153;negative spaceâ&#x20AC;? of the remaining sheet became the ground for the yellow model on the following pages. The intuitive ability to see potential in accident is a familiar technique used in art making and this habit has leaked into my design process.

Plexi-glas was used for one model, simply because I had it around. The stiffness of the material in combination with a poor laser cutting job, led to frustration. During this moment of

I have also learned in studios that if one is having fun, enjoying the buzz of discovery and making, the end result will be a more enriched design. Play is integral.

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102

Paper frame models, variations on the honeycomb shape

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103

Nested frames, carved foam model with hive satellites, circulation within a frame.

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104

Trace paper honeycomb, stacked bee tower models

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105

Carved foam â&#x20AC;&#x153;rockâ&#x20AC;? models, landscape becomes the enclosure (top right) Walking the facade as a bee on a flower (bottom left)

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106

Interconnected and nested frames, yellow plexi-glas model

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107

Beetropolis emerges not as one form but many depending on the site, detail of plexi-glas model

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108

Small paper models were made to test the various forms on each site. Gnonon site (S. Central Ave.) this page.

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109

Gnomon site, upper left. Flower hive (Grandee Ave) site, right.

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110

Flower hive site (Grandee), left Community garden under high voltage tower, above right and next page

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111

Made with grid stripes and frame variations generated parametrically, the resulting models were photographed under a strong directional light.

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112

FORMAT 113

The final format of the project was determined by tradition and convention of architectural reviews: introductory slide show, printed boards, and scale models. The criticsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; understanding of the complexity of the project with realistic components, benefited from this familiar and pragmatic approach. The script and slide show at the second review were slightly revised for the final review. A slide show format also enabled me to present many images from my research that

percolated in the minds of the critics without cluttering up a presentation wall. For the final presentation, two of the three circular site models were hung on the wall with three posters, roughly organized by theme: Map, Intervention images, and Research. Images of the entire poster as a spread and zoomed in details are on the following pages.

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114

The image above was created for the descriptive booklet handed to critics on the day of the presentation.

FORMAT

In a city where mountain lions live in foothill parklands and freeway numbers are used as landmarks, the threatened bee and urbanism collide. The mediterranean climate of Los Angeles sets the stage for optimum conditions for many kinds of flora, fauna, and forms of animal life. The miniature â&#x20AC;&#x201C;feral honeybees and other native pollinatorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; play a role in condensing the vastness of the even density of inhabitation and the cultural diversity of Los Angeles into public sites of encounter with the untamed wildness of nature. The collapse of the panorama and the petite, an interplay between projection and proximity, and the placement of beetropolis interventions alter our perception of manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s connection with underlying ecosystem networks.

115

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116

SLIDE SHOW/ SCRIPT

FORMAT

BEETROPOLIS comb encounters of the third nature los angeles

Welcome to Comb Encounters of the Third Nature

117

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

setting

118

Mountain lion P-22 in Griffith Park

In a city where mountain lions roam in the foothill parkland

FORMAT

setting

119

Enhanced LANDSTAT image of Los Angeles

and the Mediterranean climate provides optimum conditions for all kinds of life How can architecture facilitate and cultivate a relationship

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senses

120

Vaughn Bell â&#x20AC;&#x153;One Big Houseâ&#x20AC;? 2009

between the wildness of nature and human existence? This project builds on an existing community of bee-enthusiasts community gardens, and the absense of public gathering spaces. The interventions occupy vacant lots and create a network of apiaries that highlight ecological interconnections between neighborhoods, streets, and districts.

FORMAT

setting

121

Close-Up, collage. September 2013

These bee â&#x20AC;&#x153;Embassysâ&#x20AC;? or cultural centers serve as a place to learn the language and behavior of the bee and enable the cultivation of a relationship between the wildness of nature and human existence.

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human panorama

122

The project aims to facilitate engagement with the senses and experience, rather than a panorama.

FORMAT

large scale

123

48 million commercial honeybees visit California in February to pollinate 780,000 acres of almond trees.

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large scale

124

These commercially raised bees are responsible for pollinating about 1/3 of our most nutritious fruits, vegetables, and staples like cotton. These are NOT the honeybees I am interested in.

FORMAT

local scale

UPSTATE NY: 2-3 FERAL HIVES PER SQ. MILE

TOTAL FERAL POPULATION (EST.)= 23,433,500 HONEYBEES

50,000 HONEYBEES PER HIVE = 500,000 PER SQ. MILE

TOTAL POPULATION (2012) 3,860,800

FERAL HIVES PER SQ. MILE: 9-11, 3-4 PER SQ. KM.

POPULATION PER SQ. MILE: 8,230

LAND AREA: 469 SQ. MILE/ 1,215 SQ. KM

Honeybees are immigrants to North America, brought by European colonists. Now they flourish in climates like Los Angeles. There are approximately 9-11 feral colonies per sq. mile.

125

126

127

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

local scale

128

PREVIOUS SPREAD Legends Under the Glendale Freeway. Nature takes care of itself, collage Who are the actors?

FORMAT

characters

129

Expert beekeepers training new ones. (cut outs)

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

characters

130

Looking at bees close up: the experience of the small.

FORMAT

characters

131

Schools

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characters

132

“Fruit Freaks” group that maps “free” fruit that hangs over public sidewalks

FORMAT

characters

133

Kirk Anderson, founder of Backwards Beekeepers

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characters

134

Honeylove.org. An activist organization working to legalize urban beekeeping in Los Angeles.

FORMAT

characters

135

APIS MELLIFERA

And of course, the honeybee Apis Mellifera and the colony or hive.

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pollen and nectar

136

Image from Tom Seeleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Honeybee Democracy

Setting: Honey is also a local index. Pollen from flowers is different colors.

FORMAT

small yield honey

137

The nectar also varies. When harvested in small batches, honey has distinctive local and seasonal taste.

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honey by zip code

138

Some beekeepers label their honey by zip code.

FORMAT

honeybee visual language

139

Bee visual perception. pattern perception, UV wavelength (landing patterns on flowers), bee signage. 3 ft by 3 ft patch of flowers. (Observation Tower site)

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honeybees prefer walkable flowers FLOWER INFLORESCENCE compound structures preferred by bees

140

RACEME

SPIKE

CORYMB

SIMPLE UMBEL (ROUND)

SIMPLE UMBEL (FLAT)

bee movement

Like humans who prefer walkable neighborhoods and convenience, honeybees prefer gathering nectar from flowers with compound structures or inflorescence. This structure allows the pollinator to walk between nectar sources rather than expend energy flying between them. (Flower Hive site)

FORMAT

honeybees waggle dance in the dark 0900 | Az 93.8

N S

june 21 1200 Alt 79.3 | Az 186.4

E W

N S

june 21 1630 Alt 29.9 | Az 279.5

E W

sept 22 0900 Alt 38.5 | Az 122.4

sept 22 1200 Alt 55.8 | Az 186.5

E W

sept 22 1700 Alt 15.5 | Az 259.1

E W

dec 21 0900 Alt 19.6 | Az 138.6

dec 21 1200 Alt 32.5 | Az 182.4

E W

dec 21 1700 Alt 2.4 | Az 239.4

E W

mar 22 0900 Alt 38.5 | Az 122.4

E W

mar 22 1700 Alt 15.5 | Az 259.1

mar 22 1200 Alt 55.8 | Az 186.5

0 / 360 forage in line with sun

180 forage opposite sun

30 forage 30 east of sun

210 forage 150 west of sun

45 forage 45 east of sun

225 forage 135 west of sun

60 forage 60 east of sun

240 forage 120 west of sun

90 forage 90 east of sun

270 forage 90 west of sun

120 forage 120 east of sun

300 forage 60 west of sun

135 forage 135 east of sun

315 forage 45 west of sun

150 forage 150 east of sun

330 forage 30 west of sun

E W

141

Honeybees also communicate the location of forage in relation to the sun angle to other forage workers in the hive by performing a waggle dance. Some â&#x20AC;&#x153;marathonâ&#x20AC;? dancers continue to communicate the forage location even after the sun is set, demonstrating their accurate astronomical knowledge over a duration of time. (Gnomon Site)

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bee space

142

Bee space is the principle on which all human-honeybee hives have been based since 1851 when discovered by Rev. Langstoth. The frame was the interface that I chose to use as a formal device. (All Sites)

FORMAT

human- honeybee interface

143

Examples of hive types (clockwise from upper left): German multi-hive apiary, single-body (frameless) log hive, and German multi-box, frame hive with lid and stand.

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human- honeybee interface

144

Examples of hive types (clockwise from upper left): â&#x20AC;&#x153;Beehausâ&#x20AC;?, drawing of Warre Hive and photo of Warre observation hive, Top bar hive on stand.

presentation posters: maps 145

146

147

148

149

150

Stanford Ave. and E. 111th, Stanford Avalon Community Garden power corridor // observation tower apiary // forage

151

152

East 97th Street, Watts and Industrial RR Corridor hive // flower apiary // bee sense // perception

153

154

South Central Vacant Lot: Residential gnomon // sun garden // apiary // dance language // weather

155

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156

presentation models 157

158

SITE: Stanford Ave. and E. 111th, Stanford Avalon Community Garden power corridor // observation tower apiary // forage

159

Wall mounted model Alphacore and paper laser cut with applied painted paper strips for garden.

160

SITE: Stanford Ave. and E. 111th, Stanford Avalon Community Garden power corridor // observation tower apiary // forage

161

Model details

162

South Central Vacant Lot: Residential gnomon // sun garden // apiary // dance language // weather

163

Wall mounted model Alphacore and paper laser cut with applied painted paper strips for garden.

164

South Central Vacant Lot: Residential gnomon // sun garden // apiary // dance language // weather

165

Model details

166

East 97th Street, Watts and Industrial RR Corridor hive // flower apiary // bee sense // perception

167

Wall mounted model Alphacore and paper laser cut with applied painted paper strips for garden.

168

East 97th Street, Watts and Industrial RR Corridor hive // flower apiary // bee sense // perception

169

Model details

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170

presentation posters: images 171

172

173

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174

Stanford Ave. and E. 111th, Stanford Avalon Community Garden power corridor // observation tower apiary // forage

175

Beekeepers learning new skills next to pollinator garden, observation tower in background.

176

ABOVE, RIGHT Apiary opposite observation tower Pollinator garden, observation tower and apiary under high voltage electrical tower

177

178

179

180

PREVIOUS SPREAD View from observation tower ABOVE, RIGHT View through Gnonon, South Central Site

FORMAT

181

South Central Vacant Lot: Residential gnomon // sun garden // apiary // dance language // weather (The people in this image were in Google Street View)

182

East 97th Street, Watts and Industrial RR Corridor hive // flower apiary // bee sense // perception

183

184

PREVIOUS SPREAD Flower Hive site

185

ABOVE Looking up in the interior of flower hive through elevated beekeeping platform

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186

presentation posters: diagrams 187

188

0 / 360 forage in line with sun

180 forage opposite sun

30 forage 30 east of sun

210 forage 150 west of sun

45 forage 45 east of sun

225 forage 135 west of sun

60 forage 60 east of sun

240 forage 120 west of sun

90 forage 90 east of sun

270 forage 90 west of sun

120 forage 120 east of sun

300 forage 60 west of sun

135 forage 135 east of sun

315 forage 45 west of sun

150 forage 150 east of sun

330 forage 30 west of sun

FORMAT

june 21 0900 Alt 50.6 | Az 93.8

N S

june 21 1200 Alt 79.3 | Az 186.4

E W

N S

june 21 1630 Alt 29.9 | Az 279.5

E W

sept 22 0900 Alt 38.5 | Az 122.4

sept 22 1200 Alt 55.8 | Az 186.5

E W

dec 21 0900 Alt 19.6 | Az 138.6

sept 22 1700 Alt 15.5 | Az 259.1

E W

dec 21 1700 Alt 2.4 | Az 239.4

dec 21 1200 Alt 32.5 | Az 182.4

E W

mar 22 0900 Alt 38.5 | Az 122.4

E W

0/3 fora

E W

mar 22 1700 Alt 15.5 | Az 259.1

mar 22 1200 Alt 55.8 | Az 186.5

30 fora

189

45 forag

60 forag

90 forag

120 forag

135 forag

150 forag

ABOVE Sun angles and bee dance diagram for Los Angeles equinox and solstices LEFT Translation key diagram for bee waggle dance

june 21 0900 Alt 50.6 | Az 93.8

N S

120 forage 120 east of sun

E W

dec 21 1200 Alt 32.5 | Az 182.4

E W

180 forage opposite sun

dec 21 0900 Alt 19.6 | Az 138.6

210 forage 150 west of sun

sept 22 1700 Alt 15.5 | Az 259.1

30 forage 30 east of sun

sept 22 1200 Alt 55.8 | Az 186.5

sept 22 0900 Alt 38.5 | Az 122.4

190

300 forage 60 west of sun

june 21 1630 Alt 29.9 | Az 279.5

E W

N S

0 / 360 forage in line with sun

june 21 1200 Alt 79.3 | Az 186.4

E W

1200 | Az 186.5

sept 22 1700 Alt 15.5 | Az 259.1

dec 21 0900 Alt 19.6 | Az 138.6

E W

mar 22 1200 Alt 55.8 | Az 186.5

mar 22 0900 Alt 38.5 | Az 122.4

E W

dec 21 1700 Alt 2.4 | Az 239.4

dec 21 1200 Alt 32.5 | Az 182.4

E W

mar 22 1700 Alt 15.5 | Az 259.1

E W

191

ABOVE Translation diagram for Los Angeles equinox and solstices with corresponding bee dance in relation to hive. Hive (center of circle) and forage source (black dot on circle), and sun position (yellow dot on circle)

192

193

194

SOURCES Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation http://www.xerces.org/pollinators-california-region/ Theodore Payne Foundation: http://www.theodorepayne.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Pollinators

195

ABOVE Forage calendar for Los Angeles basin with California Native plants and pollinator friendly wildflowers.

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196

bibliography BOOKS: Balmori, Diana, and Joel Sanders. 2011. Groundwork: between Landscape and Architecture. New York: Monacelli Press. Bishop, Claire. Ed. 2006. Participation: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Deverell, William and Greg Hise. 2009. Land of Sunshine: An Environmental History of Metropolitan Los Angeles. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburg Press. Dixon, Luke. 2012. Keeping bees in towns & 197 cities. London: Timber Press.

Conrad, Ross. 2007. Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.

Douglas, I. Goode, D. Houch, M.C. et al. eds. 2011. The Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology. London and New York: Routledge.

Crane, Eva. 1983. The Archaeology of Beekeeping. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.

Olafur Eliasson: your body of work. 2012. Sao Paulo: Cultural Videobrasil.

Crowder, Les, and Heather Harrell. 2012. Top-bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health. White River Junction, Vt: Chelsea Green Pub. Davis, Mike. 1998. Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. New York: Metropolitan Books.

Freudenstein, Karl. 1938. Lehrbuch der Bienenkunde. KĂśnigsbrĂźck (Dresden): A. Pabst. Frisch, Karl von. 1967. The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

BEETROPOLIS: comb encounters of the third nature

Gottlieb, Robert and Mark Vallianatos, Regina M. Freer, Peter Dreier. 2005. The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City. Berkeley: University of California Press. Halle, David, and Andrew A. Beveridge. 2013. New York and Los Angeles: the uncertain future. New York: Oxford University Press. Halter, Reese. 2009. The Incomparable Honeybee & The Economics of Pollination. Surrey, BC, Canada: Rocky Mountain Books.

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Louv, Richard. 2005. Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill: NC: Algonquin Books. Mader, E. Spivak, M. and Evans, E. Feb. 2010. Managing Alternative Pollinators: A Handbook for Beekeepers, Growers, and Conservationists. Ithaca, NY: NRAES (Natural Resource, Agriculture, and Engineering Service) Manaugh, George. 2009. The BLDG BLOG book: Architectural Conjecture, Urban Speculation, Landscape Futures. San Francisco: New Chronicle Books. Markonish, Dense. 2008. Badlands: new horizons in landscape. North Adams: Mass: Mass MoCA. Morton, Timothy. 2007. Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Ikon Gallery. 2000. Lost. Birmingham: Ikon Gallery.

Mostafavi, Mohsen, and Gareth Doherty. 2010. Ecological Urbanism. Baden, Switzerland: Lars M端ller Publishers.

Lefaivre, Liane, Ingeborg Roode, and Rudolf Herman Fuchs. 2002. Aldo van Eyck: the Playgrounds and the City. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum.

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FORMAT

Sanford, Malcolm T., and Richard E. Bonney. 2010. Storey’s guide to keeping honey bees: honey production, pollination, bee health. North Adams, Mass: Storey Pub. Sauter, Florian, ed. 2007. Architectural Papers III Natural Metaphor: An Anthology of Essays on Architecture and Nature. Barcelona/ New York: Actar. Seeley, Thomas D. 1995. The Wisdom of the Hive: the social physiology of honey bee colonies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Seeley, Thomas D. 2010. Honeybee Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Shiffman, Ron. Bell, Rick et al, eds. 2012. Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space. Oakland, CA: New Village Press. Varnelis, Kazys. 2009. The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles. Barcelona [Spain]: Actar. Vogt, Günther, and Olafus Eliasson. 2012. Miniature and panorama: Vogt Landscape Architects, projects 2000-12. Baden: Lars Müller Publishers. Wilson, Edward O. 1996. In Search of Nature. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

ARTICLES: Corner, James. “Eidetic Operations and New Landscapes” in Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 1999. Kahn, Andrea “Defining Urban Sites” from Site Matters: Design Concepts, Histories, and Strategies. New York, London; Routledge. Lerup, Lars. 1994. “Stim and Dross: Rethinking the Metropolis”. Assemblage (25): 82-101. Log 25, Summer 2012 Reclaim, Resi[lience] stance//……R2. Anyone Corporation. Praxis 13 - Ecologics. 2011. Boston, MA Soja, Edward. “Taking Los Angeles Apart” 1989 in Jenks, Chris, ed. 2004 Urban Culture: critical concepts in literary and cultural studies. London: Routledge. Taton, Jacqueline. “Urban Highways and the Relutant Public Realm” in Waldheim, Charles, ed. 2006. The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

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acknowledgments Thank you to... my husband Shawn for supporting my journey dear advisors: Bet Capdeferro for her tireless encouragement and inspiration. Aleksandr Mergold for shaking things up Jimmy Blair for teaching me Maxwell Walker Rollins for an inspirational walk through her apiaries in Silverlake Mark Hardin for a delicious jar of honey from his Burbank backyard and for keeping me informed with LA beek developments Rob and Chelsea McFarland for showing me the ways of Honeylove.org Mike Griggs for pre-thesis chats about beekeeping the Hive and Honeybee collection Steven Chodoriwsky for a fantastic and flexible seminar Fieldwork Format Failure in Spring 2013 and tacos in LA Tom Seeley for taking the time to meet with me and talk about bees Linda and Bill Reeves for providing a landing spot in July

Aida Depeche and Robert Smith for being snuggly And to my friends who came to my final presentation: Caroline B., Ellen L. (giver of the good luck bee socks), Chris B., Alyson F, Matt W., 201 and of course Shawn- it meant alot that you were there. And finally, thanks to my parents for making the trek to Ithaca for my final presentation and braving the snow until graduation.

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