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The Hive
The Hive
Albany, NY, United States
Special Mention, 2025 A+Awards, Concepts - Architecture +Community
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Other Projects by The Urban Conga
The Hive
Albany, NY, United States
Special Mention, 2025 A+Awards, Concepts - Architecture +Community
Firm
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2024
SIZE
1000 sqft - 3000 sqft
BUDGET
$100K - 500K
The Hive is a community-led redesign of a city-owned alley in Albany’s West Hill neighborhood. It transforms an underutilized alley within a residential block into an open-ended programmable community space designed with and for West Hill. The open-ended design gives users the opportunity to utilize a space however they would need, providing a flexible fully-accessible communal space for the neighborhood to use for farmer’s markets, local events, assemblies, spiritual reflection, and play. It becomes a platform for the community to take over and make their own. For three years, community members of all ages participated and shared their ideas, stories, experiences, desires, and more to shape the overall design of the alleyway. As a part of these workshops, play methodologies such as play therapy were utilized to create a welcoming, hopeful, and open space for people to share, reflect, and discuss the future of this new communal space.
The new alley space is lined with six programmable nodes that serve as zones of reflection around the area’s past, present, and future. Inside each honeycomb structure is artwork created by the youth in the neighborhood. The images were placed onto a yellow polycarbonate panel that creates a stained glass like effect that casts color onto the space. At night each unit is illuminated, creating a cascade of color along the pathway that is also lit by street lights above. The honeycomb structures also contain wayfinding that highlight the different local activities that happen around the space, like the community garden, local compost, and farmer’s market. Other areas contain a chess table, seating, and performance/gathering areas. Planters were placed in each unit to provide a place for loved ones and neighbors to remember those who were lost in the area to gun violence. At the base of each structure are words of aspiration which were chosen by the community as a way to evoke positivity and hope. The new pathway is comprised of asphalt and hexagon pavers which guide one through the space and create spaces for future activities. Each end of the alley is marked with The Hive signage and information about the project showcasing it is a space built by the community for the community, and becomes a “Hive” serving as a communal space of hope where residents can gather, share, connect, and play together.
The new alley space is lined with six programmable nodes that serve as zones of reflection around the area’s past, present, and future. Inside each honeycomb structure is artwork created by the youth in the neighborhood. The images were placed onto a yellow polycarbonate panel that creates a stained glass like effect that casts color onto the space. At night each unit is illuminated, creating a cascade of color along the pathway that is also lit by street lights above. The honeycomb structures also contain wayfinding that highlight the different local activities that happen around the space, like the community garden, local compost, and farmer’s market. Other areas contain a chess table, seating, and performance/gathering areas. Planters were placed in each unit to provide a place for loved ones and neighbors to remember those who were lost in the area to gun violence. At the base of each structure are words of aspiration which were chosen by the community as a way to evoke positivity and hope. The new pathway is comprised of asphalt and hexagon pavers which guide one through the space and create spaces for future activities. Each end of the alley is marked with The Hive signage and information about the project showcasing it is a space built by the community for the community, and becomes a “Hive” serving as a communal space of hope where residents can gather, share, connect, and play together.
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