Have you ever slept in a beehive before?
Challenge
Stackable sleeping cells that resemble a beehive
Aiming at providing festival visitors with a unique experience relating to their overnight stay, the social enterprises Compaan and Labeur imagined a concept of a stackable sleeping cell that resembled a beehive. They decided to join forces with Achilles Design after being selected for an innovation subsidy. The design team of Achilles Design then began a full year of development, prototyping and testing to develop “The Honeycomb Hotel”.
Approach
Imagining and designing the honeycomb hotel
The design project kicked off by interviewing focus groups of festival visitors. Achilles Design then translated their expectations, needs and wishes into accommodation concepts. After consulting a vast number of stakeholders, including those responsible for safety regulation, we were able to work out an attractive accommodation concept that was both pleasant and compliant with the required safety and regulation standards for festivalsTrading your tent for more safety and comfort
Festival visitors are increasingly interested in trading their tent for a more comfortable and safer accommodation. B-AND-BEE offers a mobile, modular and stackable system, thereby delivering a unique user experience.
Prototyping and testing
Wooden prototypes
Prototypes were used throughout the whole design process. From early verification in carboard to full-scale, fully functional wooden B-AND-BEE’S.
The result
Winning a prestigious Henry Van De Velde Label 2015, B-AND-BEE is effectively a way to attend festivals and sleep comfortably and safely. Introducing B-AND-BEE, a mobile, modular and stackable sleeping cell that contains an experience like no other.
It was nice to get these prototypes into real-life situations such as the Gentse Feesten and test them with actual festival visitors.
A lot of effort went into the mechanical aspects: designing to meet standards and regulations to deliver a high-quality and safe prototype.