The Asheville DesignBuild Studio, a program of the Asheville Design Center, is a multi-disciplinary, hands-on, educational experience. Participants have the opportunity to affect a lasting and positive impact on Asheville’s vibrant and diverse communities. Individuals come together as a team, draw upon their wide range of design and technical disciplines to gather community input, define a project type, design and develop the concept, and then build their design. The DesignBuild Studio addresses issues of social justice, community sustainability and good design, not simply by watching, but by doing.
This project worked with the University of North Carolina-Asheville to build a “bee nursery” near an established pollinator garden on campus. With bee populations declining, there has been a call for the building of bee hotels, man-made contraptions that act as a resting place and nursery for solitary pollinators. While they may not produce honey, these pollinators still play a vital role in the growth of fruits and vegetables, plants and flowers. The studio worked with UNC-Asheville’s Office of Sustainability, as well as their Biology Department to design and build a structure that will serve as a model for bee-friendly communities around the country.
Milkhouse was pleased to provide lead instruction for this course teaching students the value of community design, tool safety, fabrication techniques and project delivery.
