“Wherever I go, bees come,” says Matt Somerville. A carpenter by trade, Somerville is also a committed conservationist, having spent the last 14 years building and installing approximately 800 homes for the dwindling insect populations around the English countryside.
“The Hive Architect,” a film directed by Max Weston and released by the outdoor clothing brand Fera, follows the scrappy, pipe-smoking woodworker as he carves out a log, builds a conical roof, and finally ventures out into a meadow to erect his construction. “There is a widely held theory that our British honey bee couldn’t exist without being domesticated by beekeepers,” says Fera. “However, for bee conservationists like Matt Somerville, this theory is ludicrous.”
Somerville typically spends his winters in his woodshop, creating as many hives as he can during the cold months. Just as the first flowers spring from the ground, he heads out to bucolic locations, where he rigs up a contraption that allows him to install the heavy builds all on his own.
In addition to watching the beautifully shot documentary above, you can find more about Somerville and his process on his website, Bee Kind Hives. (via Kottke)
