Parasitic Vegetal Structure

david fletcher + Juan azulay

The genesis of a collaborative effort between a landscape architect and architect, the MAK t6 VACANT project asks the typical operations of each medium to both expand and concede. over the course of ManY Years, the archItecture and lIvIng MaterIals are envIsIoned to sWap structural roles; the archItecture recedes, WhIle concedIng structural support to the lIvIng MaterIals It orIgInallY supported. The architecture is loosely based on the concept of cytoskeleton, a cellular scaffolding and dynamic structure that maintains cell shape and cellular components. Yet this project takes on a more macabre approach to the mutual relationship, as architecture becomes the host for a multitude of strangler fig vines that slowly consume it and assume their form and function, while creating a unique hybrid environment. The project was proposed as part of an ideas competition by the MAK Center for Art & Architecture to explore how the center’s preserved Schindler House could be buffered from “its increasingly vertical neighbors”. The competition posits that the Schindler House is “inseparable from its gardens” and new “landscape dimensions” could mediate the imbalance of its new highrise neighbors. MAK t6 VACANT proposes two primary landscape dimensions as the vehicle for this buffering: resources and time. As a means to “rebuild the ground plane”, opportunistic strangler fig – a vine that attaches itself to trees and will grow without direct interface with the ground – is hung from the top of a minimal wire scaffold containing a system of ramps and walkways. nursed bY IrrIgatIon sYsteMs In the scaffold, the fIgs harness the natural resources of the house’s reMaInIng developMental aIrspace, and create a hYbrId above-ground root sYsteM that surrounds the schIndler house. The hybrid strangler fig/scaffold becomes a host for animals, visitors, and even residents. MAK t6 VACANT is envisioned as a gradual process over a course of 30 years, where strangler figs will slowly grow to the ground, root, envelop the scaffold, and eventually gain structural autonomy when the individual vines fuse into a single organic mass. Fletcher + Azulay describe: “The vine eventually grafts itself to the inorganic structure, forming a compound organic/non-organic system that will collectively take on different characteristics and properties than either system can individually”. This process, known as allofusion, will reinforce the existing architectural frame as a three-dimensional woven composite allowing for a new way to occupy the space.

MaK t6 VaCant, the MaK Center and SCi-arc, Los Angeles, California, USA

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■ 1 Initially, a tensile cable structure and ramps are built as a framework. 2 seeding: strangler fig seeds are distributed across the top of the structure, mimicking its natural epiphytic germination process. 3 sprouting: sending a network of aerial roots toward the ground in search of nutrients. 4 grounding: tapping into ground level resources allows faster growth rate. 5 buttressing: over time the roots grow into structural buttress formation. 6 vacant: the dense aggregation of interwoven roots creates redundancy within the cytoskeleton and provides a new structural integrity. 7 the fibrous composite will continually increase its host’s structural properties as it transforms it into an architectural jungle of vines.

Launch // 3 ■