these shots are from an interesting architectural exploration from the university of stuttgart, where willows and trees grow to become load bearing members of a 26′ tower. as the trees develop, so does the structure and the program.
what ‘s unique about this project as compared to projects like plantware and patrick dougherty‘s work is the demand placed upon the trees. in other projects that either reappropriate plants to perform an alternative function or reorganize trees to provide enclosure, this example of building botany asks the trees to support more than their own weight. in the spiegel online article there’s a description of how the architects need to manipulate the trees to become load bearing, which is an interesting process of placing lateral forces on the trees in order for them to develop a support for the steel platform.
which calls into question, how green is this? forgetting for a moment that this is a nascent technology and that with time it will certainly become more efficient, it would be interesting to see how much energy is used in weighting the trees versus creating the lumber necessary to frame the same structure. I think this project is brilliant, but too frequently we define what is sustainable very simplistically. for example, it takes five years for the average driver to counter the embodied energy of just the battery of a prius, much less the rest of the vehicle. in the case of building botany, does removing the fabrication process of lumber out of construction create a more sustainable building method or is there an economy involved in creating massive amounts of lumber at once and then shipping it very efficiently? it’s a little unclear, which is why I wish there was more published on this process. regardless, its an incredibly fascinating and thought-provoking development.
from ::treehugger.
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