REFERENCE BOOK Andrea MA2 / autumn 2016
160 IMLAY / Brooklyn, NY FUTURE GREEN STUDIO A former industrial warehouse, 160 Imlay was originally built in 1913 to process and store commercial goods shipped from around the world on cargo boats. The site is imbued with a rich history and an inherent beauty that derives from regular geometries, monolithic concrete columns and material traces of an industrial past. Through eidetic reduction, the process of reducing a place to its necessary essences and invariable components, the design for the landscape strives to embody the memory of the site. Rows of white birch arranged on an extension of the original column grid recall the peeling paint and the beautiful sense of perspective of the found condition within the building. Steel ribs in the ground floor garden recall the rhythm and structure of the railroad that was an integral part of past operations. Hidden patterns inscribed in the concrete of the sidewalk are revealed only when it rains producing an ephemeral phenomenon that reveals memories through present events.
Future Green Studio is an innovative landscape design and urban ecology firm in Brooklyn, New York dedicated to the union of beautiful spaces and green solutions. At the forefront of a global movement focused on establishing place and identity through ecological design “It’s been our best opportunity to design with weeds,” Seiter says.
http://futuregreenstudio.com/ http://futuregreenstudio.com/portfolio/project/160-imlay/
inspiration: WAREHOUSE TYPOLOGY (similar to Soviet buildings in Tallinn)
RUIN ACADEMY Marco Casagrande Ruin academy is set to re-think the industrial city and the modern man in a box. It organizes workshops and courses for various Taiwanese and international universities.The research and design tasks move freely in-between architecture, urban design, environmental art and other disciplines of art and science within the general framework of built human environment. Without his ruins man is just a common ape. The Ruin Academy is looking at the ruining processes of Taipei that keep the city alive. Taipei is growing the Third Generation City – a real reality way beyond the industrial nonsense. SET-UP During the first workshop the building was taken back to its basic construction with all the additional walls and even windows removed. 6 inch holes were penetrated through the whole building from the roof to the basement and through the walls. It now rains inside the building watering the frequent plantations of trees, bamboos and vegetables in front of the window holes and in the opened up the basement. Raw mahogany planks and columns are used in the ever transforming rough interior that provides shelter for the Academy professors and students referred as constructor-gardeners. There is a public sauna in the 5th floor. ANATOMICS: 500 m2 / 5 floors, 20 m deep, 5 m wide. Concrete, mahogany, white gravel, top-soil, 6 inch holes. Bamboo, taro, Chinese cabbage, passion fruit, Aspenium nidus, wild trees, ferns and undergrowth.
http://www.casagrandelaboratory.com/portfolio/ruin-academy/
inspiration: INTERIOR WILDERNESS
JAMIE NORTH FILLS CONCRETE WITH AUSTRALIAN PLANTS The materials, often associated with monumental sculpture and architecture, provide further reference points to archaeology and the artefact. Crafted by hand, each pillar can be seen as a painting in which the discarded products of heavy industry are given new life; transformed from the realm of waste to that of art. Owing to the dense planting within, the works continue to evolve over the time, suggesting their inner dichotomy. The plants positioned within the man-made pylons comfortably complement one another. The process which the concrete undergoes lends it an almost organic and aestheticised appearance, making it a suitable-looking object to support the growth of organic life. Organic matter bursts through concrete pathways, brick buildings and asphalt roads. Plants are determined to break through, even in some of the most unexpected places. It does not take long for built areas to be overrun by plants if they are not maintained. When asked what North hopes his viewers will take with them after observing his work, he responds: “I never want to be too prescriptive, though I would like viewers to see complexity behind the apparent simplicity of the work. That means considering the distinctions between such things as the man-made and the natural, resilience and fragility, and the exotic and the indigenous.�
http://www.ignant.de/2016/06/27/jamie-north-fills-concrete-with-australian-plants/
inspiration: MATERIALITY
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3588834/Reclaimed-nature-Eerie-images-reveal-abandoned-buildings-Europe-taken-plant-life.html
inspiration: AESTHETICS
NEW YORK HIGH LINE The High Line (also known as the High Line Park) is a 1.45-mile-long (2.33 km) New York City linear park built in Manhattan on an elevated section of a disused New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line. The High Line is a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. It runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street, between 10th and 12th Avenues.
http://www.thehighline.org/visit
inspiration: NEW PAVEMENT LETS NATURE TO GROW
SEOUL HIGH LINE The overpass was constructed in the 1970s as a connecting road between Namdaemun market and the west of the city, and it crosses a major railway station. But in 2009 it had to be closed to heavy vehicles after inspections found it to be unsafe. Rather than demolishing it, a competition was launched inviting architects and designers to submit ideas for its reuse. The decision follows on from the city’s ambition to become one of the world’s most eco-friendly cities – a goal revealed by Seoul mayor Oh Se-Hoon in 2008. The old Cheonggyecheon stream – which at one stage was used as a highway – has already been reestablished as a public waterway, and the government has also been looking at ways to tackle air pollution and renovate abandoned buildings.
http://www.dezeen.com/2015/05/13/mvrdv-studio-makkink-bey-transform-seouloverpass-into-high-line-inspired-park-seoul-skygarden/
THE QUEENSWAY In 2011, a group of residents living along the former LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch, teamed up to advocate for the conversion of the LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch into a new park. The Friends of the QueensWay (FQW) consists of thousands of individuals and organizations all of whom have the goal of converting the long-abandoned property into a public park that can be enjoyed by bikers, walkers, joggers, visitors, tourists, workers and residents in Queens and the rest of the world.
http://thequeensway.org/about-us/
POP DOWN underground park Fletcher Priest Architects. Pop Down proposes reinventing the disused tunnels of The Post Office Railway (or Mail Rail), which run for 10.5 miles and passes under Oxford Street, as a public experience and urban mushroom farm. London’s history of hidden tunnels and lost rivers provide the inspiration for an idea that capitalises on the same sense of drama that New York City’s High Line creates by being ‘in between’ the fabric of the city. Visitors to Pop Down would enter and exit via three of the old central area sorting offices. Daylight is introduced to the tunnels by shafts that appear at street level as sculpted glass-fibre mushrooms. - A diagram showing how light would be introduced to the tunnels via glass-fibre mushrooms at street level. - An aerial view shows the four old central area sorting offices. Access to Pop Down would be via locations 1, 2 and 3, with pop-up café ‘Funghi’ housed at 4.
http://www.newlondonlandscape.org/project_detail_COM2.php?p=198 Willitactuallyhappen?Nope.Thecompetitionsorganiserssaidtheyjustwantedto generate debate.
inspiration: NATURE IN ROUGH CONITIONS
LOWLINE NY City The Lowline is a plan to use innovative solar technology to illuminate an historic trolley terminal on the Lower East Side of New York City. Our vision is a stunning underground park, providing a beautiful respite and a cultural attraction in one of the world’s most dense, exciting urban environments. We are inspired to use technology to improve the lives of city residents, by creating more of the green space we all need. The Lowline aims to build a new kind of public space— one that highlights the historic elements of a former trolley terminal while introducing cutting-edge solar technology and design, enabling plants and trees to grow underground. To explore our vision in greater detail, we commissioned a preliminary planning study with Arup, the global engineering firm, and HR&A Advisors, a leading real estate, economic development and energy-efficiency consulting firm. The study concluded that the Lowline was not merely technically feasible, but would also vastly improve the local economy and the adjacent transit hub. Once built, the Lowline would be a dynamic cultural space, featuring a diversity of community programming and youth activities. We envision not merely a new public space, but an innovative display of how technology can transform our cities in the 21st century. And along the way, we intend to draw the community into the design process itself, empowering a new generation of Lower East Siders to help build a new bright spot in our dense urban environment. Will be opened in 2021.
http://thelowline.org/ http://www.archdaily.com/tag/low-line
inspiration: NATURE IN ROUGH CONDITIONS + TECHNOLOGY
NYC’S FIRST COMMERCIAL FARM IN A RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT The farmer-in-residence is Zaro Bates, and she’s a 26-year-old from Brooklyn who is running the 4,500-square foot commercial farm built above an underground parking garage. Bates, with the help of her husband and business partner, Asher Landes, 29, who manages the complex’s apiary, are in the midst of their first growing season that’s already produced thousands of pounds of vegetables. Between a weekly farm stand, the three restaurants they supply with vegetables, a “veggie pick-up bundle” (sort of like a CSA, but without the subscription or a season-long commitment), and donations to a local food bank, they’re plowing through the more than 50 types of produce, which includes everything from mustard greens to cutting flowers to Asian broccolini.
http://modernfarmer.com/2016/09/empress-green-urby-staten-island/ http://modernfarmer.com/2016/02/urban-garden-soil-pollution/
EAT GROUND PROJECT IKIMONO ARCHITECTS
My body is in environment. With this work, we thought about “eating”. If we regard eating as taking environment in a body, our body can be said to be part of the big environment. I named the life among Plants-can be ate- and Earth-bring it up-”Eats ground project “. The Welsh onion grows naturally on ground like the flowering plant, the chicken lay an egg while freely strolling, and the person eat the fruit climbing up a tree. These do resembles original relations that food and human before a system such as farming and the live stock farming is created. In the scene including various things a function, a scal and more.... , These scenes grows up. My body will be made to “eat” them. https://sites.google.com/site/ikimonokenchiku/skj
inspiration: PHILOSOPHY (how to design a house)
HUNDERTWASSER HOUSE Josef Krawina, Hundertwasser, Vienna A house in harmony with nature In lectures at academies and before architectural associations, Hundertwasser elucidated his concerns regarding an architecture in harmony with nature and man. “This house is intended as first approach to a conversation with nature, in which we and nature are equal partners; one may not overpower the other. Thus, in the ecological house, window right and the tree obligation must be restored.” The WINDOW RIGHT means the freedom for the resident to recreate the prefabricated space of the apartment he is to live in. He must also be permitted to let creeping plants grow on the outside walls. “A person must be allowed to lean out of his window and to paint everything in arm’s reach pink, so people can see from far away, from the street, that there lives a MAN.” TREE OBLIGATION means the restoration of the dialogue with nature. This is about a fundamental turnabout, a fundamental new orientation. Boston ivy and other climbers and trees must be part of the plan from the beginning. The trees must be planted even before the cornerstone is laid. Humus toilets and small-scale sewage-treatment facilities with water plants on the site must supplant water closets. “The house should even prove that even modern building methods can enable a piece of nature, of spontaneous vegetation, to be in the downtown area.”
- Hundertwasser, 1980 -
http://www.hundertwasser-haus.info/en/blog/2011/07/19/the-house-should-not-be-measured-by-normal-standards/
A BUILDING AS THE CREATURE IKIMONO ARCHITECTS Enjoy the ever changing environment Primitive architecture was born to defend from rain and wind. This building is assembled from only four pieces of walls and a roof. This primitive constitution just indicates the possibility that people are able to inhabit in here somehow. But in fact, living in here is fully filled with joy, peace and discovery. Design method is simple. I create a box to live, install a window to be connected with the town, make a ceiling transparent to look up at the blue sky, plant trees to get a bowers, make a floor of soil to grow a root and raise a ceiling to grow trees. The architecture which was born in this way shows various scenes in inside and outside of it. Beside it, it sometimes shows the scenes which are beyond our imagination. This experience is a different kind of comfortableness compare to openness of open air. The comfortableness of connecting with outside from a protected place physically and psychologically. The architecture for enjoying rain and wind, not for defending them. Wherever we live, there is dynamic, ever-changing environment around us. There are seasons, time and weather coming out from the movement of the earth. If we are in the city, there is society. If we are in nature, are surrounded by a forest, a sea and creatures. They are intricate, intense, ephemeral and beautiful. I let myself go with the big flow, enjoy a slight difference and want to create the building which can touch people’s heart each moment. At this atelier, I attempt to have these experiences in the city called Takasaki, Gunma, where many thunderstorms rumble during the summer night and extremely dry wind blows during the clear winter days. Completion photograph in the winter of 2011, when the trees were so young yet, recorded the beginning of the story of Atelier Tenjinyama. We are eagerly looking forward to seeing the scene of “birth, growth and fading”, like imagining the future of children growing. https://sites.google.com/site/ikimonokenchiku/tjy
inspiration: PHILOSOPHY (how to design a house)
A BUILDING AS THE CREATURE IKIMONO ARCHITECTS The world surrounding us is moving and changing everyday. We propose the attractive architecture connecting with these ever-changing environment. Technology progresses and it is said that it is biotechniques to come next to information technology. When biology comes to exist among the building which belonged to art and the engineering field, a building may draws up water from the earth and save nourishment and grow up and do internal regulation of body temperature. I drew on here is a building as the living entity which can live if I install minimum interior decoration and furniture. It is based on a way of thinking of the human being supremacy from now on with the sustainable society to go to, so “Lack of waste� that the chain of the living entity has is beyond an ethical argument and may be concerned with life closely. Looked as a building, it may be felt littleness of own existence to feel when I put the body in a big chain if comfortable, I express it as grows humbly on the earth. https://sites.google.com/site/ikimonokenchiku/smr
inspiration: PHILOSOPHY
House rules: 2. Grass and trees must be able to grow on all horizontal surfaces under the sky, on the elevator shafts, too; where the snow is in the winter everything must be green in the summer. The horizontal belongs to nature.The vertical belongs to man. From a bird’s-eye view the house is invisible, as everything is green. 3. All green surfaces are accessible, even to tenants beneath a grass roof and those diagonally beneath a grass roof. In this way, the flats and living spaces are doubled in size. 5. Tree tenants must find quarters in the new house. Tree tenants are trees growing out of windows, thus providing the sterile, vertical house surface with greenery, with foliage, forest. Trees on the street are often impossible because of the traffic and the inside, and roof gardens are not visible from the street. So the vertical wall is an obvious location for planting trees. The tree tenant requires minimal space and pays the rent with oxygen, beauty, romanticism, with its capacity to absorb and filter dust, as an improver of air quality, provider of shade and in many other long-lasting currencies. 12. After the trees are planted on the roof, the terraces and arcade roofs and the tree tenants are installed, one year of time should go by to give the vegetation the chance to find its natural growth. Before the tenants move in and perhaps destroy the young plants. 14. The growth of the trees should proceed as naturally as possible, without man interfering in a gardening capacity, with the aim of letting a piece of truly untouched nature come to be. Not a manicured, clipped, evergreen, affected garden. In this regard, the grass must not be cut, the foliage which falls on the grass not be removed.
- Hundertwasser, 1980 -
TREE TENANTS “They are a gift of the house to the outside world, for the people who pass by the house. Man gives voluntarily small territories of his dwelling space back to nature, from which we unlawfully appropriated and destroyed large areas. Behind the outside all and in front of the set-back windows, stainless-steel tubs were installed for three tree tenants.
http://www.hundertwasser-haus.info/en/blog/2011/07/19/the-house-should-not-be-measured-by-normal-standards/
The tree tenant tubs, which contain up to one cubic meter of dirt, have root baskets of thick stainless-steel rods so the roots can get a good hold.
inspiration: THE PHILOSOPHY AROUND THE PROJECT
- Hundertwasser, 1985 -
CHIMERA IKIMONO ARCHITECTS I am always attracted to ambiguity, that means conflicting ideas coexisting in a situation. Critical localism, the common theme for this exhibition, fits this as well, uniting both local identities with universality. I have become aware of a variety of ambiguities since I set up a design office in Gunma 9 years ago. Regional yet central, old yet new, concrete yet abstract, natural yet artificial, inner yet outer, planned yet improvised, ideational yet physical, detailed yet general, dynamic yet static, and living yet dead. That these have materialized, mixed, and melted together is ideal. More than that, it may be that actually from the beginning, there isn’t a boundary between these. I want to clarify issues about the boundaries between natural and artificial for once. This works name is ChiMErA. https://sites.google.com/site/ikimonokenchiku/art
WILLIAM LEE Surface design BIOGRADABLE SEEDED CONCRETE William studied Textiles and Surface Design at Bucks New University. He has a strong interest in material development which allows him to work with individuals both within and outside his chose field. “In collaboration with a materials scientist and Shire Green Roof Substrates Ltd, I have developed a biodegradable ‘seeded’ concrete, which further combines architectural design with nature. Creating specially developed concrete material, with seeds embedded within it, provides a unique opportunity to welcome nature within architectural design. As well as provide a solution to lost habitats of native wildlife and flower species, together with getting people to reconnect with nature in an otherwise ‘baron’ landscape for plants. With a similar consistency of ‘regular’ concrete, seeds start to germinate once water is added to the material. Plant growth through the substance slowly breaking down the material, which decomposes into soil. Becoming completely biodegradable.”
http://wtl21.blogspot.com.ee/2013/07/william-lee-seeded-concrete.html https://www.pinterest.com/WLSurfaceDesign/william-lee-surface-design/
inspiration: MATERIAL
BUBBLE WRAP + CONCRTE + PLANTS On the vertical surfaces, the translucent layers of concrete are removed for an organic pattern of transparency, made possible by the moirĂŠ distribution of holes. The wall is also an acoustic barrier as acoustic foam behind the panels absorb street sound, preventing it from spilling down into the lounge.
http://www.dezeen.com/2013/12/03/office-strip-club-concrete-cast-against-bubble-wrap/
inspiration: CONTROVERSY / CONTRAST BETWEEN CONCRETE, NATURE AN D PLASTIC
PRINTABLE HYDROPONIC GARDENS: Initial Explorations and Considerations YUICHIRO TAKEUCHI
Abstract; The paper will describe our initial investigations into the topic, which have mostly focused on searching for 3D printable materials that can serve as effective substrates for plant growth. We will also discuss the potential utility of printable gardens particularly for dense, urban centers, and how the concept may be viewed as an initial step towards fabrication of more complex, holistic natural environments—i.e., printable nature. http://tinylab.me/publications/chi16pg.pdf
inspiration: MATERIAL, TECHNOLOGY
WASP PLANS TO 3D PRINT HOUSES USING A SEED/CLAY MIXTURE It is a mixture that includes seeds from certain weeds, mixed in with a cement/ clay material. The seeds are intended to absorb the clay’s moisture and then grow and develop their root systems into the 3D printed structure. This will add great strength to the material, helping the structures maintain their form for years to come. Currently WASP is experimenting with plants such as Bermuda grass, which is one of the most infesting plant types to man. WASP plans to select plant types according to the type of climate that they are 3D printing their houses in. This is to ensure the best growth and sturctural support possible. This should be very interesting to keep an eye on, as it is the first we have ever heard of a 3D printing technique that uses both native clays as well as seeds for plants in order to print out large structures. If successful, WASP may have found a solution for creating affordable housing all around the world. “Among other challenges that the team has had to work through include assuring that the clay does not shrink as it dries. In order to do this, the clay needs to include seeds from certain weeds mixed in in order to absorb the clay’s natural humidity. Once the seeds sprout, their roots become a naturally embedded “armor” and help reinforce the intended structure so that it doesn’t lose it’s dimensional stability.” (no more news of the project after 2015) https://3dprint.com/52097/wasp-3d-printed-houses-2/
inspiration: MATERIAL TECHNOLOGY (but here the clay is seeded for growing roots that would strenghten the structure)
RECLAIM THE STREETS – (PARK)ING DAY international Park(ing) Day - the idea behind this interventional project is the create temporary parks throughout the cities around the world. Since 2005, Park(ing) Day has grown rapidly. The 2010 event included more than 800 Park installations in more than 180 cities on six continents. From Iran to Madagascar, Venezuela to South Korea, the project continues to expand to urban centers across the globe, and participants have broadened the scope of PARK installations to fulfill a range of unmet social needs.
http://www.urbanartcore.eu/urban-gardening-chicago-pop-up-park/
inspiration: TEMPORARY NATURE
STACK PLANT-COVERED VOLUMES STUDIO PEI-ZHU a. expressing the relationship between the traditional art in china and the new build, the installation takes aspects of the local philosophy, garden culture and surroundings to result in the renovation of an abandoned, two-storey concrete frame. the stacked, cubic character of the arts space derives from the build up of rocks seen in a typical chinese garden. although covered with plants, the basic form from the rocks have been translated as the structure. the park will display works of art by famous artists and visitors will be able meander through the different areas aiming to provide a rich, social experience. http://www.designboom.com/architecture/studio-pei-zhu-quanzhou-national-art-park-in-fujian-china-10-27-2015/
CASAGRANDE LABOROTORY - Zero City - Chiayi Taiwan (2006) - Parascity - Treasure Hill (2009 -...) - Ruin Academy - old Rice factory (2010) - Cicada (nagu Bug Dome) (2011) - Oystermen - Kinmen Taiwan (2013) - Ultra-ruin (2013) - Taitung Ruin Academy - Sugar factory (2014)
Secret City: Illegal Architectural Interventions in Tawian Beyond the ‘official city’ of Taipei, where modernization and beautification efforts are glossing over the city’s natural and historical origins, there is Instant City. Using Taipei’s conventional modern architecture as a platform and energy source, this network of illegal architecture attaches itself ‘like a parasite’ to create unsanctioned urban farms, night markets and other social gathering places. http://weburbanist.com/2012/03/06/secret-city-the-illegal-architecture-of-tawian/
http://www.archdaily.com/135333/the-paradise-lost-in-time-interbreedingfield/
THE PARADISE LOST IN TIME BY INTERBREEDING FIELD (2010) Shihlin paper factory lies in the downtown of Taipei City, that is a big area ruined for a long time. Getting into the factory it divides into two part of area, on the left is a concrete factory building adjoining a smaller brick building with destroyed roof; On the right is a quite long factory building, constructing with beautiful brick texture. Because of the long time disuse and temporal destruction of the construction, the internal space of the factory became the best growing place for plant. The sunshine and rainwater spilled through destroyed interstice of the building, producing the ruined space filled with poetic atmosphere.
http://www.archdaily.com/135333/the-paradise-lost-in-time-interbreeding-field/
LANDSCAPE CANOPY by Axel Paredes, Ana Aleman Because of the sensibility of the tropical landscape underneath the canopy, it had to be cantilevered from the adjacent building. The brief also specified the need for privacy of view from the towers across the street while also providing shade to the offices at certain times of the day. In this context the canopy had to provide shade and privacy while also allowing sun light, wind, and rain water through it for the plants underneath. The use of columns had to be avoided completely in order not to build directly on the soil while also avoiding the cutting of any branches from the surrounding trees.
https://arch.iit.edu/prize/mchap/selected-works/project/landscape-canopy
BUILT TO DISAPPEAR - PAVILLIONS While temporary architecture can respond to environmental concerns, as it creates less of a footprint than permanent structures, many pavilions are intensive projects using significant amounts of energy and materials despite their short lifespans. In order to create minimal environmental impact, architects must also design efficient modes of production. The following projects are all pavilions built to exhibit new architectural ideas. They not only represent environmentally conscious approaches to pavilion-building — they make these alternative construction processes the very idea that they are designed to illustrate.
http://architizer.com/blog/built-to-disappear/
inspiration: BUILDING CONCEPT
A BIODEGRADABLE PAVILION FOR SUKKAHVILLE by NJIT GRADUATES 2014
This design element creates a tension between the structure’s temporary exterior and its solid, permanent structural ribs which adds an extra dimension to the supposed transience of the space. In the words of the designers, though it is up to the people that use it to dismantle their Sukkah entirely, the external appearance “lets nature decide when the sukkah needs a palette cleanse,” as users must replace the foam cladding after it disintegrates in the rain. Sandwiched between layers of the foam skin, leaves and grasses moderate the foam’s translucency, providing a dappled pattern on the interior and adding to the sense of connection to nature by protruding from the edges of the panels. In order to provide a seamless connection between layers of the the corn foam, the designers used precise amounts of water to partially dissolve the foam, creating an adhesive effect that served to hold the skin in place.
http://www.archdaily.com/621551/njit-graduates-create-a-biodegradable-pavilion-for-sukkahville-2014
inspiration: MATERIAL STRUCTURE
BIO SCAFFOLD Architecture today is seen as something static and unresponsive. However, it is time to take a hint from biology and allow our buildings to grow, adapt and self-repair. With a strong focus on mycelium, I have created an algorithmic bio scaffold, which will choreograph the growth and decay of this organic material. Sourcing inspiration from the medical industry and tissue engineering, this bio scaffold fuses both digital fabrication and biology. By studying the characteristics of mycelium through a previous research project, I discovered that fungus absorbs nutrients through its cell walls. Therefore, this 3d printed wooden form was seeded with mycelium cells in order to encourage the degradation of its external walls. However, in order to control and choreograph the growth of the mycelium, a gradient of scale, porosity and materiality was implemented in order to control this fossilisation process. In order to apply this concept of biodegradability to an architectural context, the final form was printed at a 1:1 scale as a table. After conducting various structural tests to the material, it was discovered that the mycelium block Works best in compression rather than in tension. Therefore, in order to utilise the structural features of the mycelium, the table is able to withstand any external pressure that is applied it its surface. This formula will in turn be applied to a larger scale in the future and this concept of biodegradable architecture, will hopefully be part of our future cities.
http://superarchitects.world/portfolio/bio-scaffold/
MYCELIUM is the vegetative part of a fungus or fungus-like bacterial colony, consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are found in and on soil and many other substrates. inspiration: BIODEGRADABLE STRUCTURE
HUMAN NATURE by MARIE KOJZAR Royal College Of Art London UK 2011 The proposal explores the relationship between temporary and permanent buildings. The main factory serves as the ‘classic’ whilst the always changing shop fronts occupy new sites around the landscape to provide a changing fashion in material, texture as well as form, leaving traces around the landscape. An architecture that is based on stage sets satisfy a constant consumer demand for change. The British government’s 2010 plan to sell off public forests acts as a catalyst to the project, which investigates the potential near future scenario of a privitization of nature and its consequenses. The evolution of the English landscape will have to consider current trends such as an increase in ethical consumer culture and the momentum gained by scientific advances such as genetic engineering.
http://www.presidentsmedals.com/Entry-28571
inspiration: BIODEGRADABLE ARCHITECTURE
HY-FI: MUSHROOM TOWER at MOMA PS1 2014
“Hy-Fi is a reference to a kind of technical term called hypha, which is the type of living organism that we use to manufacture the building blocks of our project. In this project, we’re using a living organism as a factory. So the living organism of mycellium, or hyphae, which is basically a mushroom root, basically makes our bricks for us. It grows our bricks in about five days with no energy required, almost no carbon emissions, and it’s using basically waste— agricultural byproducts, chopped up cornstalks. This mushroom root fuses together this biomass and makes solid bricks which we can kind of tune to be different properties.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/moma-hy-fi-_n_5549107.html
inspiration: COMPOST ARCHITECTURE
MOSS CARPET by MAKOTO AZUMA (2009) Terramac® is an eco-friendly 3D knitted and spun fabric which serves as a receptacle for the planter’s roots, protects the seeds, and holds the moss together. Made from plant-derived polylactic acid fiber, “this material is decomposed (biodegraded) by microorganisms in compost or in soil after 10 years. Eventually only carbon dioxide and water remain”. As the planter biodegrades, CO2 is captured by the plants through the process of photosynthesis. The name Terramac® means “sons of the mother earth”. The real beauty of this technology lies in the pairing of a plant-derived plastic with a plant (here the moss) to create an improved sustainable environment. Generally found growing on the sloping sides of embankments, moss can now be integrated within the heart of our homes and cities.
http://inhabitat.com/moss-carpet-grows-in-the-heart-of-your-home/
BAUBOTANIC - LIVING PLANT CONSTRUCTIONS by DR. FERDINAND LUDWIG Baubotanik, or Living Plant Constructions, is the brainchild of architect Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig who found inspiration in the ancient art of tree shaping that’s spanned cultures worldwide, from medieval European topiary to Japanese bonsai. Baubotanik puts a modern spin on the natural process of grafting by adding metal scaffolding and other construction materials to transform the trees into a load-bearing structure. Over time, the exposed tree tissue grows around and bonds with the man-made materials. After years of research, Ludwig found that the most suitable tree species were those that are flexible and fast growing, such as sycamore/plane tree, poplar, birch, and hornbeam. While willow, a favorite material among tree sculptors like Patrick Dougherty, initially met Ludwig’s standards, he now avoids them citing problems with rot and durability. Ludwig and the Baubotanik Research Group have completed three seminal works over the last decade that test these botanically inspired building methods. In 2005, Ludwig collaborated with architect Oliver Storz and sculptor Cornelius Hackenbracht to grow and construct a footbridge made from willow trees and metal scaffolding. Stainless steel tubes were inserted between young willow saplings that eventually grew around the material until the tube was fully embedded. The tubes are used as handrails for the 2.5-meter-tall elevated walking surface made from steel grates that’s supported by the tree “columns.”
http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/grow-your-own-building-baubotanik-architecture.html http://www.designboom.com/architecture/grow-your-own-architecture/ http://inhabitat.com/baubotanik-young-trees-are-molded-into-living-breathing-buildings/
inspiration: GROWING ARCHITECTURE
RISING FROM THE RUINS: PROJECTS THAT BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO DILAPIDATED BUILDINGS Ruins have become an object of fascination and romanticization. As is, they are memorials to the past — physical reminders of what once was and the inescapable powers of time and decay. But every ruin has the potential to shelter once again, to become a historic frame for a contemporary space. These seven projects have breathed new life into old ruins. Positioned at the intersection of old and new, the projects speak to the durability of masonry, its ability to be reused and repurposed. Even in ruin, their foundations prove robust enough to support a whole new structure for new generations of users.
http://architizer.com/blog/in-ruins/
inspiration: RUINS IN USE
ROBOTIC CYBER GARDEN by The reEarth Project Researchers and designers of the ‘reEarth’ project in London have created a robotic cyber-garden that can sense its surroundings and move around the city if necessary, adjusting itself to the environment. The project of the Interactive Architecture Lab, at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture, aims to find new ways of interaction between humans and nature. The garden, named hortum machina B, is shaped like a geodesic dome and contains 12 garden modules in its core; each holding plants and being able to move inward and outward. By changing its center of gravity, the ‘ball’ is able to role across the ground and move to a more convenient location. Plants are stimulated by their environmental surroundings, sensing and determining if their environmental conditions are suitable for habitation. If necessary, the garden-robot will be informed to move along. On-board water storage is included for growth, allowing the ball to stay in motion, technically indefinitely when using efficient water reclamation techniques. The system is also solar-powered; by moving towards the light the unit is also powering itself, not just the plants.
http://popupcity.net/robotic-cyber-garden-greening-up-london/
inspiration: SELF-SUFFICIENT SPACE / ELEMENT
BIOLOGICAL GROWTH by Yong Ha Kim (MA thesis 2013) The Metabolism is a basic system of creature which has own perfect biological system. It is also a fundamental discipline for the biological growth. And there are a lot of processes in biological growth of creature, also creature has been transformed a lot in each process by this metabolism with having a certain relationship with other creature. The basic principle of biological growth is a continuous transformation and improvement by repeated fundamental processes and by time. Stimmulation Grouping Combination (Aggregation) Growth Efficency Flow (Metabolism, 1960 ~ 1970) The thesis is to introduce the biological growth in architecture and design process in order to animate natural geometry by using the notion of time. The animated geometry from these process could be transformed and improved continuously as a certain creature in nature. This biological growth has a possibility to give an architect a kind of selective process by real time.
http://superarchitects.world/portfolio/biological-growth/
MYCELIUM by SEBASTIAN ALVARADO GRUGIEL We studied the ability of mycelium to adapt to cardboard and plywood structures, in order to make it grow in specific predesigned forms, in this case a sculptural piece of furniture. While mycelium didn’t decomposed the cardboard and wood, it starched to it firmly. We made structures with a notching system, filling the in between holes with mycelium and nutrients for it. The mycelium grew and spread all over the structures, attaching to it and consuming all the nutrients available. When the mycelium matured, it produced eatable mushrooms for 2 months. After that, it dried and a piece of furniture was ready for use. It could be disposed directly into the forest, where it would become new nutrients for the soil and plants.
http://materiability.com/mycelium/
inspiration: GROWING ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN JUNCTION by SATELLITE ARCHITECTS The design of the facade reflects the temporary nature of the Design Junction exhibition, combining the natural and artificial. A grid system is wrapped around an existing screen of trees and bushes. The grid system holds a pixelated array of panels, which are orientated to reflect or provide glimpses of the foliage beyond, merging the two entities. The arrangement of the pixels directs visitors to the entrances and act as way finding signage. Reflective elements multiply the structural presence of the facade and the natural elements, allowing visitors to pass through the shrouded foliage as they enter the exhibition.
http://www.satellitearchitects.com/#/plymouth-studio-school-1-1/
inspiration: NEW STRUCTURE AROUND THE TREES