Award-winning Collaborative Work: Bee Sculpture at the Goetheanum
The new bee sculpture in the garden park of the Goetheanum in Dornach (Switzerland) invites visitors to a sensual encounter with the nature of bees. The structure, which is sponsored by the Software AG Foundation (SAGST), recently received two awards from architectural experts.
The approximately seven-metre-high, walk-in clay sculpture was awarded a recognition prize by the Solothurn cantonal government as part of the award for building culture and an honorable mention by the international architecture platform March. It was designed by the Basel artist Barbara Schnetzler in collaboration with the architect Balthasar Wirz. The tower-like building has the shape of an erected honeycomb and is a real community effort: 64 volunteers - including experts as well as interested laypeople, children and adults - took part in several workshops on the clay work.
Sensory experience
When you enter the room, you are immersed in warm, wax-scented darkness. Depending on the season, you can watch the insects at work in several beehives open to the outside through glass windows and hear their buzzing through ear trumpets. Subdued light only enters the interior from above. The concept also won over the jury of the Solothurn Architecture Prize, who were impressed by the poetic simplicity of the building. Using "simple means", a space has been created here that "deeply touches all the senses" and "creates a monument to the construction work of bees".
"A place has been created here where art, nature observation and awareness-raising come together," added Sebastian Bauer, project manager at SAGST. "The bee sculpture makes visible what Rudolf Steiner described as the essence of bees - their coexistence as an image for a future of solidarity between people."
Built in the immediate vicinity of the observatory and a wildflower meadow, the sculpture provides exciting insights into Demeter beekeeping. At the same time, it is part of a larger ecological and educational concept of the Goetheanum garden park. This also includes the new, award-winning preparation pavilion in a striking wooden design, which provides information on the production and use of biodynamic preparations.
