Growing Architecture: How to Design and Build with Trees

✍ Scribed by Ferdinand Ludwig; Daniel Schönle

• Publisher: Birkhäuser
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 224
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

A growing, living house, a building made of a plant seems to be a contradiction in terms. Nevertheless, the Khasi in eastern India already knew how to connect the branches of rubber trees to form footbridges, and in southern Germany dance lime trees formed the centre of villages for centuries. Following on from this, the new discipline of Baubotanik is dedicated to designing with trees. Built projects, prototypes and visionary concepts point the way to a new green architecture. This introduction shows the possibilities of such living constructions and goes into the botanical growth laws that guide the design. The basics of constructing with trees are presented. The book encourages a whole new look at architecture that becomes part of urban nature.

• With numerous international examples and fascinating visual material
• Overview of tree species suitable for construction
• Botanical structures, like trees, contribute to local climate improvement

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Preface: Buildings and Trees
1 Introduction
2 Botanical Foundations
3 Techniques and Tree Species
4 Fusion of Trees and Buildings
5 How Living Structures Interact with Their Environment
6 Designing with Trees and Time
7 Utopias and Visions: Living Architecture between Science and Fiction
8 Vers une Arbotecture: Towards a Future Tree Architecture
Appendix