we build a beehouse that will be used to educate people about the importance of bee's in nature. it's currently part of the cartoonfestival in belgium.

dimensions of the beehouse: lenght: 4 meters
width: 4 meters height: 3 meters

materials and equipment:

- douglas beams 90mm*90mm 510cm long (about 50) for the framing

- osb-3 22mm thick 59cm*244cm (about 60) for the roof and floor

- mdf 18mm for the honeycomb

- some heavy duty outdoor hinges

- plexiglass: 10mm thick

-douglas panels 30mm thick 220mm wide 420cm long for the sidings.

- thermowood rabat siding for the roof (about 45)

- epdm waterproofing for the roof

- standard woodworking equipment (festool kapex, plunge saw, impact drivers)

- stainless steel screws

Step 1: Framing

first step in making something like this is framing your floor. keep the dimensions of your osb material in mind when constructing your floor frame.

i decided not to make a straight little house but one that was offset on all sides. so the entire house fades out at 15°. so instead of making straight framing I cut all of the outside frames at 15° on the bottom.

this is a "walk-through" house with two sides being used as display, that why the framing looks a bit odd in the pictures.

the roof rafters stuck out on the sides to make sure no water could come inside the house and it gives additional shelter for the rain.

Step 2: Sidings + Reinforcing the Rafters

My next step was connecting the rafters with 4 douglas beams and adding some extra support in the rafter to make the roof more rigid.

I aslo started to put the sidings and cut out the parts for the windows

Step 3: Honeycombs in the Windows

on the inside of the house I decided to make honeycombs to use as windowtrimming. i made these out of mdf. I cut out a template with a jigsaw and then copied that template with my router. connecting the seperate pieces with woodglue to make up a honeycomb.

Step 4: Roof + Sidings

now that the rafters were secured I cut the osb sheets to size and fit them to make the roof. I finished the sidings and added 2 doors and 4 latches to make sure everything could be securely closed at night.

end of prefabrication stage time to label everything and tear the house down.

Step 5: Rebuilding the Frame on Site

first step on site was obviously rebuilding the frame and rafters. because everything was numbered and labeled this went pretty quickly. I had to make some small changes because the flooring wasn't level

Step 6: Finishing the Roof and Sidings

after rebuilding the frame and rafters I fitted the osb sheets to the roof. I glued down the epdm and attached the thermowood siding to make up a waterproof roofing. the thermowood siding were nailed with stainless steel roofing nails.

now that the roof was waterproof I could finish up with the sidings on both the outside and inside.