Self Sustainability

About : Studying self-sustainable structures in nature and design a habitable space using those structural qualities and performances

Project type : Academic

Semester : M. Arch (Sem 2)

Location : None

Ÿ Honeycombs are made from beeswax, a substance created by worker bees When the temperature is right, worker bees secrete wax scales from special glands in their body. Then they chew the wax with a bit of honey and pollen to produce the beeswax.

Ÿ The hexagonal cells serve as storage vessels for honey, as well as homes to raise young bees

Ÿ Honey provides bees with the energy they need to survive and reproduce, as well as to build their homes.

Ÿ To make enough wax, worker bees need a lot of energy, and must therefore consume a lot of honey.

Ÿ By building honeycomb cells that share walls, bees can better conserve their resources (wax) and energy (honey).

Ÿ When bees construct their combs, they need to minimize the space between cells while maximizing the space available within the cell to store their honey.

Start of a Bee Hive

Outer cells are used for honey storage, and the central cells are used for brooding by the queen bee

Space efficiency

When the storage cells are filled and no more honey can be stored, that is the time the bee colony decides to move part of the colony to a new hive with a new queen bee

Swarming behaviour of bees shows that they are in search for a suitable location for a new bee hive

Ÿ A hexagonal honeycomb is the way to fit the most area with the least perimeter That means storing more honey in a larger volume while spending less energy building a structure to contain it.

Compressive strength

The bees search for cavities in rocks, tree branches, etc to protect the hive from harsh condition.

After a suitab e ocat on is agreed upon, the bees start building the hive cell by cell and not the entire hive all together

Cell Structure

Each cell in a section of honeycomb has a hexagonal opening and is in the shape of a type of irregular polyhedron called a decahedra

Back to back ends

Forces appl ed a ong a s ng e honeycomb channel will cause the structure to deform

Wa ls of adjacent honeycomb channels exert forces to keep the form rigid and underformed

Effect of gravity

Rear of honeycomb cell

Front of honeycomb cell

Learnings

Single cell

Arrangement of cell for optimal use of building material.

Shared wall reduce use of material

Cluster of cells

Space between plates for movement and interaction

Less perimeter and more area is provided by the hexagon shape as compared to other shapes

Cell added as per need similar to the concept of modular building

Space for movement

A small percentage of cells are always found empty in every hive

Empty cells

Depending on the site condition and requirement more unit can be attached to the parent structure

Arrangement options

This can translate into creating open spaces or interaction spaces between habitable unit

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