The Eden Project is celebrating becoming a protected bee reserve for an important local honey bee by unveiling a new observation hive which will enable visitors see how these fascinating creatures live.

The Great Hive Mind is a striking installation made from reclaimed scaffolding poles. It contains an observation hive which is home to a colony of around 25,000 bees expected to rise to more than 50,000 by next summer. It is situated in Eden’s Outer Estate in a field full of wild flowers above Eden’s Wild Chile area.

The Great Hive Mind joins other beehives around Eden as a home for the local European dark honey bee (Apis mellifera mellifera), also known as the native dark honey bee or black bee.

The Great Hive Mind observation hive is constructed with mirrors so visitors can view the bees without disturbing them. It was built over the course of two weeks by a multi-national team of nine architecture students organised by CAUKIN Studio, a collective of young architectural designers working on a variety of design and construction projects worldwide.