taxi house

London, 2025

For Mason & Fifth’s long-stay hotel in Westbourne Park, Blast Studio designed a series of sculptural totems installed along the Union Canal. Conceived as bee hotels, the pieces create sheltered habitats for solitary bees and other insects within the site’s green spaces.

Each totem is made from stacked lozenge-shaped modules. The outer elements are cast from concrete mixed with reclaimed brick dust, while the inner modules are 3D printed in clay and shaped with holes and creases that can be gradually taken over by plants and insects. The structures are designed to blend into the landscape, with perforations and profiles that cast soft, shifting shadows reminiscent of trees.

The project explores how architectural objects can quietly support urban biodiversity, offering refuge, nesting spaces, and new micro-habitats within the city.

A modern brick building with large windows, trees, and decorative sculptures outside near a waterway.
Close-up of a terracotta sculpture with ribbed texture, mounted on a metal rod, with similar sculptures blurred in the background.
Outdoor sculpture made of interconnected, textured, clay-colored shapes with wooden and metal components, near a small shrub, with graffiti wall and cityscape in the background.
Outdoor urban scene with modern stairs, green trees, and residential buildings. A person in a police uniform wearing a bright yellow vest is seen on the stairs.
Decorative sculpture made of intertwined wooden and orange materials outside a building with brick walls and large glass windows.
Close-up of a textured wooden sculpture with abstract shapes, featuring smooth, rounded clay or ceramic elements in a reddish color integrated into the sculpture.
Modern brick building with large glass windows and plants on balconies, graffiti art on interior wall visible through glass, and outdoor sculptures resembling elongated, eye-shaped forms placed in front of large glass doors, surrounded by greenery an