Eco Factor: Tower made from hundreds of living trees.
Constructing skyscrapers is now more of a necessity than an architect’s dream turning to reality. With the growth in population and the increase in the number of people living in urban cities, architects have been designing modern skyscrapers that can house the masses. However, construction waste and the use harmful materials have often criticized modern architecture.
Research Group Baubotanik at the Institute of Theory of Modern Architecture and Design at the University of Stuttgart have been focusing on the idea of living plant constructions that consists of structure made from living trees. The first prototype tower has been completed and the building is located in the south of Germany.
The tower will give the opportunity to carry out practical tests on living plant skyscrapers that will be green to their core. The prototype tower is 9 meters high and has a footprint of about 8-square-meters. Trees do contribute in maintaining a healthy microclimate in cities, but they take decades to fully develop. The architects confronted the problem by constructing a framework made of several hundred young plants, out of which the plants at the ground are planted in the soil and all others are rooted in plant containers, which are plugged in temporary steel scaffolding.
Plants of same species can be joined together to form a single organism by methods similar to grafting. Plants will eventually sprout out and form a green wall and in the course of the development the plant containers will be removed along with the steel scaffolding, when the structure is strong enough to take the load of three zinc-coated steel platforms. The architects believe that the process is slow and a time period between 8 to 10 years is estimated for the structure to take the load of the building.
Images Courtesy: Baubotanik [PDF]
Via: ScienceDaily
