plant as script? an approach to algorithm in architecture plants are hierarchical structures, made of material with subtle properties

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1 plant as script? an approach to algorithm in architecture plants are hierarchical structures, made of material with subtle properties that are capable of being changed by the plant in response to local or global stresses - Michael Weinstock R + Sie(n) are a French group of architects known for speculative algorithmic work that rigorously blurs distinctions between machine and garden. Their built work uses algorithmic analogy when it does not use raw scripting tools. Arch 486 Case Study: I m Lost in Paris, R+Sie 1

2 1. the principle plants: 1200 ferns beakers: 300 glass blown location: Paris, France year: 2008 dimensions: 1,400 sq.ft CO2 O2 latitude: N ave temp: 52.2 F VOLUME LIFESPAN hydroponic, water-recycling, gaze-processing machine Arch 486 Case Study: I m Lost in Paris, R+Sie 2

3 2. the process. creation of an envelope made from 1200 hydroponic ferns.. introduction of 300 glass beakers. These provide extra light for the interior, through refraction.. collection of rainwater, in order to water the plants: This is done via an individual mechanical drip-system. the drip system also provides nutritional additives, portion controls. Arch 486 Case Study: I m Lost in Paris, R+Sie 3

4 3. the project It s the story of an urban witch living behind a rear windows designed as a duck cabana. As alchemist, she feeds the plant with drop by drop hydroponics system watering liquid substances coming from the bacterian chemical preparation in 200 beakers disseminated in the ferns surfaces. -architect s statement Arch 486 Case Study: I m Lost in Paris, R+Sie 4

5 4. the approach Nature is basically made up of indetermination protocols. Algorithms can simulate the growth of a tree in terms of reproducing its geometry, but the fit between geometry-photosynthesis-equilibrium-growth is and always will be a hidden protocol that can t be reduced to its simple mathematical and geometrical dimensions. - Francois Rouche, principal Arch 486 Case Study: I m Lost in Paris, R+Sie 5

6 5. the issues. beakers originally intended as small greenhouses to grow bacteria for hydroponic solution.. interiors always dim due to lack of access to light.. diagram of building deployed on multiple sites : fragility of fiction in face of built work. Arch 486 Case Study: I m Lost in Paris, R+Sie 6

7 sources R+Sie: the Question of Morphological and Ecological Engineering Corbellini Giovanni, Bioboot: The Architecture of R&Sie(n), Princeton Architectural Press, Weinstock Michael, «Self-Organisation and material construction», in Hansel Michael, Menges Achim, Weinstock Michael (Guest editors), Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic design, Architectural Design, March 2006, pp Aranda, Benjamin, and Chris Lasch. Tooling. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, Moussavi, Farshid, and Michael Kubo. The Function of Ornament. Barcelona: Actar, R+Sie(n) web site Research Architecture web site Arch 486 Case Study: I m Lost in Paris, R+Sie 7

8 Ashle Fauvre Spring 2010 Case Study, I m Lost in Paris, R&Sie(n) R&Sie(n) is a group of French architects known for speculative algorithmic work that rigorously blurs distinctions between machine and garden. Their built work uses algorithmic analogy when it does not use raw scripting tools. This house, known as I m Lost in Paris, built in 2008, is underpinned by the concept of morphogenesis. This branch of architectural research is concerned with finding patterns in nature and representing these patterns through algorithm, then deploying the algorithm as an analogy in a new project. The designer s approach functions on convictions about the role of metaphor. Reviewing their work, it becomes clear that most of the un-built work relies on heavily scripted scenarios, and much, if not all, of the built work does not. It is as if for the built work, the concept of scripting has been expanded to include all of nature, or perhaps the material world. For this reason, the approach is instructive: it formulates a practice that is independent of specific tools. Examples of their built work explore a relationship between the biological, the natural, and the human, which can be simplified to a loose diagram. This diagram is then tailored to specific conditions of client and site to produce unique works. A human dwells inside a concrete shell. Around the shell, struts hold a mesh fabric away from the structure. This buffer zone is compelling to see but cannot be occupied. The mesh fabric supports a growing mat of plants, selected for their genetic proclivities and maintained in a systematic fashion. Each plant type has a size or volume, which is proportional to its lifespan. Each plant has measurable requirements for water, air, and light. In the case of I m Lost in Paris, these requirements are supplied via a hydroponic system. Captured rainwater, mixed with nutrients, runs through a capillary system of plastic tubing to directly nourish each plant. The plants, which have developed basically quantitative growth patterns, interlace roots and leaves and form a plant community.

9 Like a parametric algorithm for a non-organic building skin, the base unit has inputs and outputs that are addressed by the definition of the design. Then, the plants are essentially tiled across a surface. Their growth can be controlled, to a certain extent, based on the amount of water distributed to the system. The water feeds into a beaker out of which the plant grows. The extra fluid is drawn away via tube to another container below the house. For light permeability to the inner core of the house, plant-units are replaced with hand-blown glass beakers. These beakers refract light into interior spaces. Originally, the designer planned to use these beakers as small greenhouses in which to grow bacteria to nourish the ferns. This proved to be out of the scope of the project. The project relies on a rich understanding of the relationship between natural world and built environment. Technology and biological science mitigate a buffer zone between the inside of the human dwelling and the outside of the natural world. In the urban condition of I m Lost, the fern-units are selected and displaced from their habitat to become part of a highly engineered system. Unlike other projects, such as the house known as Shearing or the project called Spidernethewood, which both relate directly to a site characterized as unpaved, planted, and part of a managed ecosystem, this project relates to an urban site. So the connection to nature is not visual, but rather has to do with the capture of rainwater, the seasonal effects of temperature on the plant system, and the access of the site to sunlight. These wider conditions form a definition guiding the success of this building skin. In fact, the cyclic and occasionally erratic parametric inputs become legible on the building skin. The building skin, then, forms a physical buffer between inside and outside of the house, as well as a metaphorical buffer between the inside of human culture and the outside of the natural world. Additionally, it becomes a palimpsest of the changing relationship between systems of physical geography and the urban dwelling. The approach to design undergoes a translation from speculative work, in which all parameters can be controlled, robots can be articulated and systems

10 can be finessed without the other worldly parameters of budget and code. In built work, the design relies on a parametric tectonic diagram that can be tailored to any site, and a fundamental concept regarding the relationship of culture and nature. Meaning becomes a component dependent on the site: the building acquires meaning based on the physical parameters of site, client, budget, and code. This practice of parametric architecture is independent of algorithmic tools.