Assembled & grown | Part III

PROCESS III

architectural interface of the

ASSEMBLED & GROWN

CO NC LU S I O N S R E L E VA N T TO D E S I G N C anop y e xe m p l i f i c a t i o n – h o w th e s tru ctu ral g eo m etry i n ear ly it e r a t i o n s a p p e a re d to u n derm i n e th e n atu ral g ro wth .

P lan t m o r p h o l o g y – i t was rath er abo u t cel ebrati n g pl an t m or p h o l o g y b y u t i l i z i n g an d ex po s i n g i t In s tead o f c l o si n g o ff t he can o py, l i m i ti n g l i g h t, th e can o py cov er e a c h p l a t f o r m o p en i n g th e cen ter to al l o w g ro wth of ter res tri a l sp e c i e s. U t i l i zi n g th e verti cal di m en s i o n to activ ate a s e q u e n c e o f b i o s ph eres th at ex ten d th e can o py al o n e.

It ap p e a re d t o b e c o n tradi cto ry to wo rk wi th a co m pl ex s tr uctu r a l b o d y, f o r t h e s ake o f aes th eti cs , i t s h o u l d rath er be s tr u c t u r a l c o m p o n e n t s th at f aci l i tate s tag es o f g ro wth , or enh an c e n a t u r a l m o r p h o l o g y.

The in t e n t i o n b e i n g t o e s tabl i s h bo th h o ri s o n tal an d verti ca l bios p h e re s, t h a t a re f a c i l i tated by th e s tru ctu ral g eo m etry and d is t r i b u t i o n .

A n influ e n t i a l d e s i g n p a r am eter becam e th at i t s h o u l d be th e grow n t h a t g ro w s , a n d th e bu i l d f aci l i tates . So m eth i n g I retu r ned t o s e v e r a l t i m e s , an d s o m eth i n g I wi l l ex pl o re f u rth er in the l a st p a r t o f t h e p res en tati o n .

It is r at h e r a b o u t c e l e b r a ti n g th e di vers i ty o f pl an t m o rph o l ogy, th an a c o m p l e x s t r u c tu ral g eo m etry. T h e s tru ctu re s h o u l d be min i m a l i n o rd e r t o f aci l i tate an d em ph as i ze g ro wth .

S U M M A RY This narrative unfolds the architectural investigation underlying the design process. Starting with the analogical interpretations of building a site- and thematic-specific vocabulary, and the thought process of the first canopy iterations being of purely pragmatic origin. Into the development and intention of conception of following iterations, reflecting on the complications in dealing with an organic element in architecture, defining the purpose and method of representation and what purpose the structural and the grown should serve.

CANOPY

BRANCHING PHOTOTROPIC - East West NEGATIVELY GEOTROPIC leaf stoma apical dominance lateral bud

RHIZOME SEQUENCE

HYDROTROPIC primary root secondary root lateral tertiary root internode

MYCELIUM

DECENTRALIZED NEGATIVELY PHOTOTROPIC GEOTROPIC station link clone cluster

N 400m

ANALOGICAL INVESTIGATION 1:1000

300m

200m

100m

0

100m

200m

300m

A N A LO G I C A L S I TE RE A D I N G Following the analogical intentions of the program, the site connections & geometry was analyzed with references to plant-specific traits.

The intention being to use the analogical drawning as the foundation for placing the site as well as developing a thematic vocabulary. The drawings follow a vertical parameter of the canopy in top, and the rhizome root at the bottom.

The canopy following light conditions on site, determining a phototropic behavior cutting the site in open areas with an emphasis on east west.

The mycelium, being geotropic, following internal connections marking intensities and internal spaces.

The Rhizome, being hydrotropic in accentuating the drainage outlet, following drainzones and expanding in void areas. Deploying an understanding of the outlet as being crucial to understanding the area, segmenting it into a sequence.

Although the analogies prooved good for understanding the site-specific geometry, the extend of the analogical reading was problematic.

When does the drawing stop, and how trustworthy is it, as it is a product of individual interpretation.

400m

CANOP Y

BRANCHIN G

PHOTOTROPIC - East West NEGATIVELY GEOTROPIC leaf stoma apical dominance lateral bud

N 400m

ANALOGICAL INVESTIGATION 1:1000

300m

200m

100m

0

100m

200m

300m

400m

MYCELIUM

DECENTRALIZED NEGATIVELY PHOTOTROPIC GEOTROPIC station link clone cluster

N 400m

ANALOGICAL INVESTIGATION 1:1000

300m

200m

100m

0

100m

200m

300m

400m

RHIZOME SEQUENCE

HYDROTROPIC primary root secondary root lateral tertiary root internode

N 400m

ANALOGICAL INVESTIGATION 1:1000

300m

200m

100m

0

100m

200m

300m

400m

1.1 13

15

16

0.7

08

0.3

07

06

DAY

N

JUL

EA

R

65%

day

ligh

t-

AUG

sta rt

of d

ry s

eas

on

6

SEP

MAR

º 3,4

9,

6

FEB

OCT

JAN

sol

ar no

NOV on

AST ERC

33%

tart t-s

et of w

n

so sea

gh ayli

d

GROWTH SUN RAIN

S

N 340º

350º

330º

0º

10º

20º 30º

10º

320º

40º

20º

310º

50º

30º 40º

300º

21st jun solstice

60º

50º 290º

may/jul 70º

60º 70º

280º

apr/aug

80º

80º

W 270º

90º

90º

260º

E

mar/sep

100º

250º

17

7º

OV

DEC

15

16

YEAR

CL

MAY

E

APR

solar intensity

1.0

10

JUN

cloudy

1.0

11

14

W

clear

1.1 12

09

direct so lar i rrad 0.3 0.7 iatio 18 n 17

1.0

0.9

0.9 (k

²) /m 1.0 W

14

13

12

11

10

09

feb/oct

08

07

110º jan/nov

240º

120º

230º

130º 220º

140º 210º

150º 200º

190º

180º

170º

160º

S

SOLAR & SEASON

summarized exposure

21st dec solstice

DIRECTION turbulence and flow

EAST

Threshhold 3m/s

Threshhold 2m/s

NORTH

Obstruction

N

N

30 24 18 12 6 M/ S HO UR S 10%

VELOCITY MAGNITUDE

20% 30% 40%

CONTEXTUAL WIND ANALYSIS

VAULT SUSPENSION

RESEARCH SCAN

CULTIVATION CONDITION

BIOTOPE APPLICATION

1 s t C A N O P Y I TE RATI O N Conceived on the basis of infrastructural analysis, solar and wind studies, the first iteration of the canopy structure was split in two mirrored sections, one smaller than the other. Instead of closing off the canopy, limiting light, the canopy cover each platform opening the center to allow growth of terrestrial species. Expanding on the existing nature instead of covering it.

6

5

4

3

2

1

VELOCITY m/s at 4 m/s 7 6

0

5 4 3 2 1 N

S

CANOPY WIND STUDIES & AERODYNAMICS

0

1 s t I TE RATI O N The first iteration followed the contextual studies as well as programmatic distribution, setting up a vertical axis of Forest Floor, Understory and Canopy, as well as implementing the intersecting infrastructural strategy, emphasizing the natural void it envelops. The first iteration placed a chimney under a closed canopy, to use the stack effect for increased airflow. Something deemed both unnecessary and not in tune with the project.

1.1

1.1 12

11

1.0 10

1.0 0.9

09

0.7

08

0.3

07

06

DAY

E

controlled cultivation

passage

platform

seed vault

UND platform

platform

market

buslanes

NODE

MAIN GERMINATION

I

PEOPLE

DRY

REDUCED TRANSPIRATION

II

Hackelia Deflaxa

WATER

WET

DECREASED METABOLISM

III

Nyphoides Paltata

AIR

FLOWERING

GENETIC EXCHANGE

Lamourouxia viscosa

HORIZONTAL GROWTH

SEASON & ALTERNATION

SEED DISPERSAL

currated through nodes & stem

metabolism & reproduction

TRANSPORT & ADAPTATION

D E S I G N I N TE N TI O N as the iterations went on, the focus was on emphasizing the infrastructural and programmatic composition both horisontally and vertically. Emphasizing the void space in between, and utilizing the design elements efficiently and with the intention of each element adding to the overall design. Spanning accross the internal void, the structural architecture should unfold the internal space, and in the vertical displacement open up to the city. Contrary to deisgn methods on previous semesters, the introduction of plants meant that much of the design process was highly influenced by a reflective decision making, where the design should emphasize growth I couldn’t model. Instead it was questions of how the existing landscape should be used, and how passengers would move through it.

DESIGN R E F LE C T I ON As the focus of the design process became increasingly structural, with an emphasis on solving and composing the program as an open intervention, unfolding the urban natural void. The actual plants became somewthat neglected, and the landscape without variation became an illustration.

At that point it became clear that the consequence of the conservation approach, meant that the process had to be more suggestive in what the place could become. Especially in terms of aesthetic experience and morphology. In that regard a series of design parameters was established.

ASSEMBLED & GROWN HOST - OCCUPANT

Through the project the relationship of the host body, and the residing growth is being questioned. A choice made was that the building doesn’t grow or mimic a plant, it follows rather a scheme of succesion, one that cannot be predicted in a single point in time. To define a set method of temporal change through a modular or expansive approach is self-contradicting, as it doesn’t regard the aquisition of new technology and ad-hoc interchangeability. Instead it is the grown that grows, forming structures of it’s own, and like a front lawn cut and controlled as deemed necessary.

The notation investigates the friction of a designed 3 dimensional framework, and the growth within it, suggesting that it is not the complexity of form that matters, but the regard of plant morphology.

EPIPHYTES

CLIMBERS

TERRESTRIAL

AQUATIC

FLORAL STRA TA ENDEMI C MORP HOLOGY

DESI G N PA R A M E T E R :

A MIN I M A L B U I LD I N G B O DY TH AT E M P H A SI Z E T H E D I V E RS I TY O F P L A N TS It is rather about celebrating the diversity of plant morphology, than a complex structural geometry. The structure should be minimal in order to facilitate and emphasize growth. For the purpose of the investigation the diversity was limited to 4 categories.

EPIPHYTES

CLIMBERS

TERRESTRIAL

AQUATIC

There are well over 15,000 epiphytes in the tropical realm alone, and over 30,000 worldwide as well as numerous uncataloged species. The term epiphyte describes a plant which, like a parasite, grows on a host, but unlike a parasite, takes no nutrients from the host tree itself.

Lianas are vines that begin life on the ground as small self-supporting shrubs and rely on other plants to reach the light-rich environment of the upper canopy. Because lianas use the architecture of other plants for support, they devote relatively little to support and structural instead allocate more resources to leaf production and stem/root elongation for rapid growth.

The Amazon is particularly rich in trees and plants, with more than 40,000 species that play critical roles in regulating the global climate and sustaining the local water cycle. All have adapted to the abundant rain and often nutrient-poor soils. To defend themselves from herbivores some have developed tough leaves, resins or latex outer coats enabling them to resist many predators. Nonetheless, many of the plants and trees are valued for what they produce – timber, compounds valued in agriculture and medicines such as curare, bres including kapok, rubber, and food for both the people living in the Amazon and the wider world.

Most prominent of the aquatic plants in the amazon, is the Giant water Lily (Victoria Amazonica).

The lily is well defended from fish and other animals by sharp spines on the flower buds, leaf stalks, and underside of leaves.The lily pads have tremendous buoyancy from a web-like structure of veins – all filled with air.

BE

RS LIM C

HIGH DRAINAGE

TERRA FIRME

LOWLAND

IGAPÓ

FLOODED

VÁRZEA

SEASONALLY FLOODED

DESI G N PA R A M E T E R :

A BUI LD I N G T H AT RE GA RD S A V E RTI C A L & HORIS O N TA L D I S T RI B U TI O N O F H A B I TATS, I N O R D E R TO C U RATE SE N S ATI O N The intention being to establish both horisontal and vertical biospheres, that are facilitated by the structural geometry and distribution.

STAGE

03

STAGE

02

STAGE

01 B

A

F

30m

C

D

A Germination B Planting/attaching C Net Skin Membrane D Walkway E Counter Pulley F Wire

E PI PH Y T IC CU LT IVAT ION

E

DESI G N PA R A M E T E R :

A B UI LD I N G T H AT D O E SN ’ T L O O K L I K E A PL A N T B U T FAC I LI TATE P L A N T M O RP H O L O G Y & C U LTI VATI O N An influential design parameter became that it should be the grown that grows, and the build facilitates. The cultivation types I was looking for don’t exist, so by going through growth phases, plant morphology & with reference to last semesters device phase, new architectural modules where conceived as the proposed strategy.

The cultivation module facilitates growth stages, as epiphytic seeds are germinated in the dark center, moved to the planting position, attached to the skin membrane, that over time and as the plant get grows moves out on the canopy through a pulley-system, deploying the plant with the possibility of drawing it back in for harvest and analysis.

EPIPHYTIC CULTIVATION MODULE

TENSION CABLE

FASTLANE WALKWAY

WAITING / VIEWING PLATFORM

STRUCTURAL PYLON

BUSLANE BARRIOS

BUSLANE CENTRO

SHADED WALKWAY CONSERVATORY

SEED BANK