Each cell is crafted to maximize strength and storage while using the least amount of materials—a perfect balance of efficiency and precision. Working together as a seamless team, bees create complex structures that house their young, store food, and maintain the colony’s survival.

Their architectural achievements remind us that even the smallest creatures can design with astonishing purpose and skill.

But bees are struggling (worldwide), and master carpenter Matt Somerville, a committed conservationist, is working to do something about it by building and installing homes for dwindling insect populations (800 and counting). And now he is featured in a new documentary called “The Hive Architect”.

This short documentary (12 minutes long) follows Somerville as he creates his unique, conical-topped log hives, which are designed to be minimal-intervention homes.

Watch the documentary here.