Friendly bees start work at the Zalgirio Arena swimming pool

Zalgiris Kaunas continues to show leadership, fostering nature-friendly activities and following the path of green politics.

The organization's latest step is an apiary on the Nemunas island near the Zalgirio Arena swimming pool, where bee colonies are housed in hives depicting Kaunas modernist buildings.

The bees working on Nemunas island have taken up residence in hives that look like the Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Kaunas Central Post Office building and the KTU Central Hall.

The authors of the idea invite Kaunas residents and visitors to take a fresh look at the architecture, learn about the history of the city's old buildings, and imagine life back then as vibrantly as it is now in this bee house.

"One of the values of Zalgiris is leadership, leadership to act in a community-based and sustainable way," says Radvile Krusinskiene, Deputy Director of Zalgirio Arena. - Housing bees on the Nemunas Island, in unique art deco hives, reflects our values in at least a couple of ways - we cherish and are proud of Kaunas' architectural heritage, we create a nature-friendly space, and we present works of art in a modern way to the citizens of Kaunas as well as to the tourists."

The unique hives were created by Japanese artist, designer, developer and architect Kazuhiro Yajima during the 2022 Kaunas Landscape Design Festival "Magenta", the woodworking and execution of the project was done by the carpenter of Kaunas College of Forestry and Environmental Engineering, Vidas Varnas, while the maintenance of the hives and the collection of the honey will be done by the city's beekeepers - the Urbanbee.lt team.

Magenta is about the city in nature and nature in the city, with the aim of bringing urbanised nature to life and strengthening the role of landscape design in creating a better and healthier future for us, by combining design, architecture, history, street art, biology, ecology, psychology and other disciplines.

Kaunas is called the greenest city in Lithuania by visitors and locals alike for good reason - it is a city that is highly dependent on landscape, whose urban development has been influenced by the confluence of the Nemunas and the Neris rivers, the valleys and ravines of small rivers, the historic oak forest and the artificial Kaunas Lagoon pond.

Zalgiris is also concerned about energy efficiency - Zalgirio Arena has an energy management system in place, and a 110 kW solar power plant on the roof of the Zalgiro Arena is currently generating energy.

Reusable cups were also used at the Pakrante Festival at Zalgirio Arena in late June and early July.