Plant Architecture. Material Strategies - AA.VV. [Bilingual edition]

Laugier summarized the origin of architecture with a tree structure and Semper identified in the woven leaves of a Caribbean hut’s enclosure one of the essential elements of inhabitation. Plants have been part of architecture from its very origin and they are to be found in several building traditions that are now being incorporated into contemporary practice to profit from their thermal qualities, their availability and their low environmental footprint. The vernacular lessons of Swedish stugas and Asturian teitos have common principles with the green roofs such as those at the California Academy of Sciences, by Renzo Piano, which allow to replace air-conditioning by natural ventilation to a great extent; further, the enclosures of woven reed and cane of Iraqi mudhifs or Peruvian quinchas have evolved into more sophisticated facades of pressed straw or algae, as in the SolarLeaf project in Hamburg (Germany), by Arup; finally, the South Asian tradition of hanging bridges made out of aerial roots has been up-dated by Baubotanik, the German research group which designs load-bearing structures with living trees. From vernacular tradition to contemporary innovation, this book explores the theoretical and technical implications of the role played by plants in the configuration of inhabited space.

ARQUITECTURAS OCACIONALES [AAOO*]. MARTA GARCÍA CARBONERO, FERDINAND LUDWIG, IGNACIO BORREGO, CRUZ CALLEJA, MIGUEL GUITART, SANTIAGO DE MOLINA, CLARA SÁNCHEZ VALDIVIESO, ALBERTO T. ESTÉVEZ, CARLOS PESQUEIRA, MARÍA ANTONIA FERNÁDNEZ NIETO, DIEGO GARCÍA-SETIÉN, MARÍA DEL VAL VÁZQUEZ SEQUEIROS, MARTA DENEGRI Y MANUEL DE LARA.