Grow a Treehouse with Terreform

We love treehouses here at Inhabitat and are enamored with eco-architect Mitchell Joachim’s visionary ideas about how to grow living treehouses from ficus molded around frame structures. We’ve covered these playful architectural ideas before on Inhabitat, but now we have a video from Mitchell Joachim explaining the details of how they work. Joachim does better justice to his imaginative ecological designs than we are able to do in a mere post, so if you have any interest in living treehouses (and we know you do), check out the video above.

And if you enjoy this 5-minute video and want to see more, check out the full-length video of Terreform’s many cool projects, over at ScribeMedia

As part of the ecological architecture nonprofit Terreform, Mitchell Joachim, Lara Greden, and Javier Arbona designed this living treehouse in which the dwelling itself merges with its environment and nourishes its inhabitants. Fab Tree Hab dissolves our conventional concept of home and establishes a new symbiosis between the house and its surrounding ecosystem.

In order to build the arboreal frame, the designers utilize “pleaching” - a gardening technique in which tree branches are woven together to form living archways. Trees such as Elm, Live Oak, and Dogwood bear the heavier loads, while vines, branches, and plants form a lattice for the walls and roof of the house. The interior structure is made of cob (clay and straw), a tried-and-true green building approach that lends itself to customized shaping of walls and ceilings.

The trees that form the frame and the plants that grow on the external walls are meant to provide sustenance for the inhabitants and other living creatures who interact with the structure. On this level, the designers aim to demonstrate that natural building materials, when utilized in their living state, can create a “superstructure” that is biologically pure and contains no unknown substances. They point out that new building materials, even those that champion sustainability, are nevertheless industrially manufactured and contain components that are not fully understood in terms of their long-term impact.

+ Terreform Video (45 Minutes)

+ Terreform

+ Terreform’s Living Treehouse: Fab Tree Hab

+ Top Ten Treehouses

+ Terreform’s Soft Car




Bạn có thể tham khảo thêm tại http://www.terreform.org/fab_tree_hab_business_plan.pdf

by Jill Fehrenbacher
November 20, 2007

Chicago Eco-Pavilion by Zaha Hadid Unveiled

Award-winning international architects Zaha Hadid and Ben van Berkel recently unveiled their designs for two eco-pavilions that will be the centerpieces of Burnham Plan Centennial celebrations this summer in Chicago. Both pavilions emphasize the importance of boldly imagining a better future for all, as Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett did in 1909 in their Plan of Chicago. So how can something that is disposable and temporary really be sustainable? Inhabitat wondered the same thing. So we called the organizers and they were more than happy to explain.

Hadid’s curvilinear pavilion will be constructed out of fabric stretched over an aluminum frame. The tent-like form has been designed to be collapsable and easily re-installed. The goal is that after its debut in Chicago, the Hadid pavilion will travel to other locations such as a university or maybe even the Olympic Games in London. We’re not sure who will have to cover the carbon cost of the Hadid pavilion’s globe-trotting but that might be nitpicking!

As for Van Berkel’s design, it is crafted out of a variety of materials including steel and wood. Again, while the materials themselves may not be of sustainable provenance, the structure is designed to be deconstructed and recycled. According to construction partners Third Coast Construction and the Creative Collective, the materials from van Berkel’s pavilion will go to the Reuse People.

The organizers are working hard to ensure that the materials will survive as part of a public art project. When they start installing the pavilions this summer, over 3000 sf of screening fabric will go up around the site. This fabric will be recycled instead of being discarded, going on to become reusable tote bags for the citizens of Chicago. Although each architect’s use of “recyclable” but not recycled material could have been greener, we certainly approve of the thought and future-forward planning that is going into each pavilion.

+ Burnham Plan Centennial

by Haily Zaki

April 16, 2009

Sky-Terra Towers Sprout Cities in the Skies

As urban areas become more congested and dense, it becomes more challenging for city dwellers to spend time outdoors, exercise and relax. Buildings tower over public parks, blocking out the sun, while city streets are polluted with particulate matter and exhaust from vehicles. To cope with the growing need for green urban space, San Francisco-based designer Joanna Borek-Clement has envisioned these eye-popping Sky-Terra skyscrapers - not just a single building, but a network of interconnected towers that are inspired by the shape of neuron cells. This skyscraper superstructure provides a new city layer - one covered in public parks, amphitheaters, fields, and public pools and bathhouses.

One of many incredible entries in the 2009 eVolo Skyscraper competition, Borek’s Sky-Terra skyscrapers were designed with Tokyo in mind - a city that is already overly congested and wanting for public recreational space.

Sky-Terra towers consist of a narrow base with a deep and strong foundation. The towers rise up to 1,600 ft and expand out until they reach the flat top plaza layer. Bridging over existing buildings, the Sky-Terra forms a new layer for the city high above the congestion and pollution. These plazas have many options and configurations, from public parks, greenbelts, playing fields, jogging paths, amphitheaters, pools, bath houses - all with the aim of providing people with access to open space.

Joanna Borek-Clement, who also works for the Bay Area based DGA, designed many sustainable elements into Sky-Terra. The transportation system consists of interconnected foot paths, as well as 4 foot wide streets designated for bikes or small electric cars. Anything that is not a pathway or road is meant to be green space which will assist in reducing urban heat island effect. Rainwater collection will provide water for landscaping needs, and the towers’ building materials consist of modular parts that would be mass-produced to conserve resources and energy.

The inner core of each structure contains an elevator system that would transport people from the street level up to the top. Office, commercial and possibly even residential space will occupy the fins that expand from the inner core of the tower. And if you’re concerned that the plazas would block out the sun to the city streets below, the plaza levels are designed with holes and spaces between the fins that allow light to beam down. Since it is more sustainable to live within a city, innovative and creative designs like the Sky-Terra may provide beautiful and efficient solutions to give people access to healthy recreational space.

+ Joanna Borek-Clement

+ Evolo Skyscraper Competition




by Bridgette Steffen
April 23, 2009

Taiwan’s Beautiful Bioshell Center for Disease Control

Inspired by the elegant form of the Nautilus Shell, the Taiwan Center for Disease Control’s BioLab conceals a dangerous riddle within its outer skin. Usually only visible to the naked eye, the structure of the outer skin is laced with geometric patterns that represent the four symbols of the DNA sequence of the dangerous bacteria being studied within. If you’re not in awe of the structure itself, you may catch on to the message that Taiwan is trying to deliver: “Epidemic prevention is a war that we intend to win”.

A joint project by Manfredi Nicoletti and Arco Architects & Designers, the design has received an honorable mention in a competition to design a new center for disease control located in the Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park in Hsinchu County. The twin nautilus shell structures are surrounded by a rolling green-roofed complex that provides insulation while blending the project in with its surrounding environment. A large central atrium suffuses the interiors with light, and the biolab’s beautiful facade acts as a brise-soleil that helps to regulate interior climate while allowing light to filter through.

Although it is unclear whether or not anyone will truly see the pathogenic code hidden in the structure’s exterior, the nature of the bioshell goes to show that beauty lies in even the most destructive forms of nature.

+ Manfredi Nicoletti

+ Arco Architects & Designers

Via World Architecture News






by Evelyn Lee
April 29, 2009

Abu Dhabi’s Spiraling Helix Hotel

The Helix Hotel in Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Bay doesn’t have floors like we’re used to - instead it spirals in sections of a corkscrew from top to bottom with no clear breaks, flowing from retail to residential, and hotel suites to saunas. The hollow center keeps foot traffic flowing while infusing interior spaces with coastal air and natural light, while on the outside GROW panels are fast at work harnessing solar and wind energy. Because of its unique design, every room has a slighly different view — perfect for watching over the contruction of Zaha Hadid’s Sheikh Zayed Bridge just next door.

Leeser Architects‘ design of the Helix Hotel won the invitation-only competition sponsored by Al Qudra Real Estate and QP International. In cooperation with environmental design consultants at Atelier Ten, the Helix Hotel, which nearly floats right into the Persian Gulf, will maximize use of local natural resources likes sun, wind, and ocean water while keep guests comfortable in all 208 rooms.

GROW panels made from 100% recyclable polyethylene will be installed on the exterior and will collect energy from both the sun and the wind. Interior temperatures will be managed by a cascading ocean-fed waterfall in the atrium that will help maintain interior climate and humidity levels, while a retractable glass wall will open up to cool sea breezes that constantly circulate fresh air.

+ Leeser Architects








by Alexandra Kain
April 2, 2009