As the issue of bee population decline continues to gain more public attention, the United Kingdom's Milan Expo 2015 pavilion, "The Hive", pays tribute to the hard-working honeybees and their essential role of pollination in helping produce the food we eat. Once the 1,910 m2 pavilion officially opens this Friday at the Milan Expo, it will serve as a space for a program of UK business, science and cultural events during the Expo's six-month run.

Designed by Nottingham-based artist Wolfgang Buttress in collaboration with engineer Tristan Simmonds and architectural practice BDP, the Hive's design concept was inspired by the perspective of a honeybee buzzing about its beehive. Fabricated by York-based Stage One (who has created installations for Olympic Games Ceremonies and the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion since 2009), the pavilion boasts 169,300 individual aluminum components.

Assembled into 32 horizontal layers, the pavilion's main body is made up of concentric zig-zag-shaped nodes, which are connected to rods up to one meter in length. The semi-circular nodes located at the intersections of the overlapping chords provide the connection points for the rods.

At the heart of The Hive is a central spherical void speckled with LED light fittings. The lights then glow and pulsate to represent bee activity captured by an accelerometer located within a real beehive back in Nottingham.

"'Our client UKT&I was particularly enlightened and allowed us to manage the project in an efficient and controlled manner. There have been challenges in terms of sheer volume of The Hive components and a very compressed program,'  said Adam Wildi, Senior Project Director at Stage One, in a statement. "'Nevertheless, we are delighted to have created an astonishing pavilion in time for the opening of Expo on 1st of May.'"

Project Team:
Artist and creative lead: Wolfgang Buttress
Pavilion manufacture and production: Stage One
Structural engineers: Simmonds Studio
Architecture, landscape architecture and environmental engineering: BDP
Physicist and bee expert: Dr. Martin Bencsik

Find more Milan Expo posts here. More info about the UK Pavilion here.