Growing Tray
Ecology-
Contemporary vernacular thought regarding the relationship between ecology and ‘man made’ built space is still plagued by two interrelated misconceptions. The first is that the artificial and the natural are somehow differentiated. Environmental ecology is applied as a gloss over autonomous construction as an aesthetic or ‘green-washing’ manuver. This project approaches this relationship from the opposite angle, which is to say that ecological phenomena and man-made artifacts are codependent on social, economic and political levels.
The second fallacy is the distance between ecology {read: resource extraction and waste dispersal] and most people’s sphere of consciousness. Production, distribution and waste dispersal practices are all but invisible to most everyone in society, the only point of interaction, and consequently influence, is the point of consumption. By placing ecological process in close knit juxtaposition with inhabitation, it fosters consumer awareness and so yields more control over choices.
Here we see the growing trays which allow seedlings to be grown on an artifi cial surface. The trays are optimized for different spatial requirements at different stages in the growth cycle. They are pre-fabricated and standardized to fit within the armature, allowing more or less of a particular type as needs require.
Layers
Rather than one over-arching logic, applied in a totalizing manner, the tectonics must be designed around many interrelated, mutually dependent organizations. This allows them to perform their unique functions while sharing a deep reciprocity with each other and the site conditions. This is material tectonics as spatial analogy for networked yet determined fl ows, as opposed to aesthetic
metaphor.
Program
Inhabitation, Culture, Research, Production, Distribution, Consumption
In order to access and occupy the remote and harsh zone of an interchange multiple programs are necessary. No single program arranged
in a monoculture could possibly survive on its own. Each program and use therefore has a reciprocal and integral relationship with each other. They rely on each other in a symbiosis that allows them to perform to their potential. Housing provides more permanent dwellings for the researchers and farmers and transient accommodation for agro-tourists, which increases awareness on a visceral and experiential level. The tree farm and its infrastructure protects the housing with sound attenuation and carbon sequestration. Research areas develop strands of tree that grow straighter, are less prone to disease and sequest carbon at faster rates. Commercial space interfaces with the public, creating a sense of place while providing education thereby improving awareness, and contributing economic resources. Distribution facilitates growth of the system by
providing a collection point from which to transplant trees that are ready to be planted, whether along the highway or to points beyond.
Cross programming, not only makes sense on economic and ecological levels, but is vital to the project’s existence. The separation and
division of program is primarily what creates liminal space; it is fi tting that programmatic weaving offers the alternative.
Autonomous Tectonics
Autonomous tectonics are intentionally designed in a vacuum. They are often conceived and created for a singular purpose, to be applied simply in various contexts and scales. In this model, pure engineering and fi xed assembly line repetitive construction practices dictate forms and geometry regardless of place and time. In a Fordist ‘one size fi ts all’ mantra, the designed object in inherently placeless, as it ‘fi ts’ equally well or poorly with its context. Highway infrastructure, with the primary goal of facilitating an automobile’s direction at a certain rate of speed, is placeless. Autonomous tectonics are imperialistic: they require that the site respond to them. As the model for infrastructure, and some urban planning, for the past 100 years, the coming challenge will be how to fi t into and mediate timeless and placeless
fi xed geometries.
Co-adaptive Tectonics
Co-adaptive tectonics are defined by a shared reciprocity with their given context. They are intimately site specific. Also, termed ‘mass-customization,’ these Post-Fordist assembly methodologies enable a class or range of objects that fi t together to respond to sites specifi cally. They are determinately non-linear, and intelligent and self refl exive enough to respond to local conditions, geometries, and mandates. Toshio Shibata’s photography illustrates a fl exible, adaptive organization that responds to specific needs. The conditions of the site, whether economic, ecologic, social, cultural or political inform the tectonics and then the tectonics enable strategic operation on the site.
