Today, I’m globetrotting from the BaseCamp hostel in Bonn to the Beehive Hotel in Toronto …

Sorry, no human vacancies here.

Created by PopTarts Works, this little “bee & bee” is a marvelously modern-arty gift to Toronto’s urban buzzers.

Photo courtesy of Inhabitat.com

The Beehive Hotel was a winning entry in the Design by Nature public art competition in Toronto, born as a result of the designers’ concern for North America’s recent rash of bee colony collapses.

“The goal of this installation is to encourage pollinators in the Toronto region to inhabit and reproduce as well as create an art project that would have a contemporary form and stand as a beautiful beehive sculpture,” explain sisters Aleksandra and Yvonne Popovska, the hotel’s designers.

Unlike many beehives, this one welcomes mason bees, solitary critters that nest in nature’s varied cracks and crevices. They don’t make honey, but they’re prolific pollinators, and they rarely (if ever) sting. Dave Hunter, a mason bee expert in Woodinville, Washington, calls mason bees “cuddly” and praises their pollination prowess. “A honeybee might pollinate 15 flowers per day,” he says, “while a mason bee can pollinate up to 2,000.”

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