Architects Ferdinand Ludwig and Daniel Schönle would like to revolutionize the way we build, or more appropriately “grow”, our buildings. Inspired by the ancient art of tree shaping - from Japanese Bonsai to India’s Living Tree Bridges - they have added modern materials, like metal scaffolding, to graft a 10-meter-high (33 feet) living tower near Germany’s Black Forest. The Plane-Tree-Cube Nagold is their largest living plant structure yet though Ludwig has spent years experimenting with “baubotanik” (bau= building + “botanik” = botany) techniques, inspired by historical examples. Ludwig’s first biodesigned structure was the Baubotanik Footbridge planted in 2005 as an initial attempt to get people into the canopy of the trees. Biodesign relies on processes that occur in nature, such as inosculation: a grafting process where the limbs of separate trees grow together, shedding bark and outer layers so the inner tissue and vasculature combine to create one organism. Another technique inspired by the events in the natural world is “uberballung” where a limb “grows over” another element, normally a metal beam or rod. Baubotanik constructions evolve over time. As the trees grow together they become strong enough to be load-bearing and more and more of the metal infrastructure can be removed. Over time, the buildings become more tree and more alive. Ludwig believes his Baubotanik methods can scale to buildings as high as a tree can grow (about 30 meters or 100 feet). “We made some design proposals even for whole streets where all the street trees are fused with the building in this way,” explains Ludwig. “So the people don’t live in a house, they live in a tree. For sure there are some rooms behind there that are traditional in a way, but if you go out of the door you stand in the tree, in the canopy.” Baubotanik: https://www.baubotanik.org/en/
City in Sky Bamboo Structures
City in Sky by Mu Wei + Sam Cho + Yu Hui
Nearly 40 young students who participated in a three month building project in Wuhan, China had a chance to experiment with living bamboo as a vital construction material. Led by architects Mu Wei, Sam Cho and Yu Hui for Natur Organic Life, the 'City in Sky' workshop was designed to steer the architectural conversation away from concrete and steel, and back towards a more organic approach that dominated Asian architecture for eons.
Nearly 40 young students who participated in a three month building project in Wuhan, China had a chance to experiment with living bamboo as a vital construction material. Led by architects Mu Wei, Sam Cho and Yu Hui for Natur Organic Life, the 'City in Sky' workshop was designed to steer the architectural conversation away from concrete and steel, and back towards a more organic approach that dominated Asian architecture for eons.
Nearly 40 students participated in a three month building workshop in China
The workshop organizers sought to remedy a rigorous and rote educational model deprives many Chinese children of a hands-on relationship with the natural environment, and their parents were able to attend as well. Although the architects were on hand to guide the process, the workshop participants were involved with sketching, modeling and construction.
Via Arch Daily - Images via Li Xiao & Jiang Jiang
Mud Buildings by the Himba Tribe
Earth and dung have been in use for thousands of years as a building material, but few houses surpass those built by the women of the Himba tribe. Like giant pots, these tiny houses they keep the occupants cool in the day and warm at night. This is sustainable green building at its best, designed to fit the environment and melt back into the landscape when the family moves on.
Notes on Chaos Theory and Emergence
Chaos
Structures that are created by its inhabitants that evolve in a fluid manner. Where need addresses form and resultant structure. A system of material connections create a distinct form limited to its own constraints. By allowing an additive form to be modified in time, it adapts to the needs of the inhabitants.
A dissipative system that is self-organized can create a substantial structure with a few parts. By initiating a chaotic system, the structure develops multiple triangulated connections that are independent of the entire system. Removal of individual structural members do not affect the remaining structure. The redundancy in connections make the structure even stronger. The chaotic system allows for adaptive growth in any direction as seen necessary. Once the chaotic program has been introduced, the resultant forms that become attached to it must adapt to the randomized system. As this system grows, the complexity and organic quality is expressed into the new growth.
chaos architecture is
like a seed whose message is
a vivid demarcation of chaotic organization
made of organic forms that demand attention to a natural aesthetic
as a reflection of the human mind
which too is a labyrinth of complex correlations within itself.
by building these forms, a connection is made between nature, and the human mind.
we can better understand what is natural about our mind and bodies.
by existing within these structures, we harmonize with the complexity that feels natural to us.
similar to the experience of being in nature, which brings stillness, peace and delight.
- Chris Bribach
ARCHITECTURE OF NOISE
- Many parts in intricate arrangement.
- A condition of numerous elements in a system and numerous forms of relationships among the elements.
- Weaver's view, complexity comes in two forms: disorganized complexity, and organized complexity. Weaver’s paper has influenced contemporary thinking about complexity.
- The approaches which embody concepts of systems, multiple elements might be summarized as implying that complexity arises from the number of distinguishable relational regimes (and their associated state spaces) in a defined system.
- Mega structures that define the new super scale that cities on earth and in orbit that would be constructed of autopoietic
SYSTEMS THEORY
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Systems theory is an interdisciplinary field of science and the study of the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. More specificially, it is a framework by which one can analyze and/or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result. This could be a single organism, any organization or society, or any electro-mechanical or informational artifact. Systems theory as a technical and general academic area of study predominantly refers to the science of systems that resulted from Bertalanffy's General System Theory (GST), among others, in initiating what became a project of systems research and practice. It was Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson who developed interdisciplinary perspectives in systems theory (such as positive and negative feedback in the social sciences).
COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS
Main article: Complex adaptive systems
Complex adaptive systems are special cases of complex systems. They are complex in that they are diverse and made up of multiple interconnected elements and adaptive in that they have the capacity to change and learn from experience. The term complex adaptive systems was coined at the interdisciplinary Santa Fe Institute (SFI), by John H. Holland, Murray Gell-Mann and others.
CAS ideas and models are essentially evolutionary, and they take ground in the modern biological views on adaptation and evolution. Accordingly, the theory of complex adaptive systems bridges developments of the system theory with the ideas of 'generalized Darwinism', which suggests that Darwinian principles of evolution are capable to explain a range of complex material phenomena, from cosmic to social objects.
DISSIPATIVE SYSTEM
A dissipative system (or dissipative structure) is a thermodynamically open system which is operating far from thermodynamic equilibrium in an environment with which it exchanges energy and matter.
A dissipative system is characterized by the spontaneous appearance of symmetry breaking (anisotropy) and the formation of complex, sometimes chaotic, structures where interacting particles exhibit long range correlations. The term dissipative structure was coined by Belgian scientist Ilya Prigogine, who pioneered research in the field and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977.
Simple examples include convection, cyclones and hurricanes. More complex examples include lasers, Bénard cells, the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction and at the most sophisticated level, life itself.
SELF-ORGANIZATION
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Self-organization is a process of attraction and repulsion in which the internal organization of a system, normally an open system, increases in complexity without being guided or managed by an outside source. Self-organizing systems typically (though not always) display emergent properties.
AUTOPOIESIS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A termite "cathedral" mound produced by a termite colony: a classic example of emergence in nature.
utopoiesis literally means "auto (self)-creation" (from the Greek: auto - αυτό for self- and poiesis - ποίησις for creation or production), and expresses a fundamental dialectic between structure and function. The term was originally introduced by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela in 1973:
"An autopoietic machine is a machine organized (defined as a unity) as a network of processes of production (transformation and destruction) of components which: (i) through their interactions and transformations continuously regenerate and realize the network of processes (relations) that produced them; and (ii) constitute it (the machine) as a concrete unity in space in which they (the components) exist by specifying the topological domain of its realization as such a network." (Maturana, Varela, 1980, p. 78)
"[…] the space defined by an autopoietic system is self-contained and cannot be described by using dimensions that define another space. When we refer to our interactions with a concrete autopoietic system, however, we project this system on the space of our manipulations and make a description of this projection." (Maturana, Varela, 1980, p. 89)
The term autopoiesis was originally conceived as an attempt to characterize the nature of living systems. A canonical example of an autopoietic system is the biological cell. The eukaryotic cell, for example, is made of various biochemical components such as nucleic acids and proteins, and is organized into bounded structures such as the cell nucleus, various organelles, a cell membrane and cytoskeleton. These structures, based on an external flow of molecules and energy, produce the components which, in turn, continue to maintain the organized bounded structure that gives rise to these components. An autopoietic system is to be contrasted with an allopoietic system, such as a car factory, which uses raw materials (components) to generate a car (an organized structure) which is something other than itself (the factory).
More generally, the term autopoiesis resembles the dynamics of a non-equilibrium system; that is, organized states (sometimes also called dissipative structures) that remain stable for long periods of time despite matter and energy continually flowing through them. From a very general point of view, the notion of autopoiesis is often associated with that of self-organization. However, an autopoietic system is autonomous and operationally closed, in the sense that every process within it directly helps maintaining the whole. Autopoietic systems are structurally coupled with their medium in dialect dynamic of changes that can be recalled as sensory-motor coupling. This continuous dynamic is considered as knowledge and can be observed throughout life-forms.
An application of the concept to sociology can be found in Luhmann's Systems Theory.
EMERGENCE
The Lorenz attractor is an example of a non-linear dynamical system. Studying this system helped give rise to Chaos theory.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In philosophy, systems theory and the sciences, emergence refers to the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems.
For other uses see Emergence (disambiguation) and Emergency.
See also the closely related articles: Spontaneous order and self-organization.
DYNAMICAL SYSTEM
Fractal fern created using chaos game. Natural forms (ferns, clouds, mountains, etc.) may be recreated through an Iterated function system (IFS).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The dynamical system concept is a mathematical formalization for any fixed "rule" which describes the time dependence of a point's position in its ambient space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a clock pendulum, the flow of water in a pipe, and the number of fish each spring in a lake.
A dynamical system has a state determined by a collection of real numbers, or more generally by a set of points in an appropriate state space. Small changes in the state of the system correspond to small changes in the numbers. The numbers are also the coordinates of a geometrical space—a manifold. The evolution rule of the dynamical system is a fixed rule that describes what future states follow from the current state. The rule is deterministic: for a given time interval only one future state follows from the current state.
This article is about the general aspects of dynamical systems. For technical details, see Dynamical system (definition). For the use of dynamical systems in cognitive science, see Dynamical system (cognitive science).
CHAOS THEORY
Bifurcation diagram of a logistic map, displaying chaotic behaviour past a threshold
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In mathematics, chaos theory describes the behavior of certain dynamical systems – that is, systems whose state evolves with time – that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of perturbations in the initial conditions, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future dynamics are fully defined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved. This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos.
Chaotic behaviour is also observed in natural systems, such as the weather. This may be explained by a chaos-theoretical analysis of a mathematical model of such a system, embodying the laws of physics that are relevant for the natural system.
Turbulence in the tip vortex from an airplane wing. Studies of the critical point beyond which a system creates turbulence was important for Chaos theory, analyzed for example by the Soviet physicist Lev Landau who developed the Landau-Hopf theory of turbulence. David Ruelle and Floris Takens later predicted, against Landau, that fluid turbulence could develop through a strange attractor, a main concept of chaos theory.
Emergent Forms
A relaxing of rigid structures to emergent forms, Chris Bribach
Design sketch proposal for a living structure for Sunset Magazine working with Brandon Pruett of Living Green Design San Francisco. Welded wire frame to be filled with Florafelt growing materials then planted to show a transition between rigid forms and organic emergent forms.
Bio-morphic Spaces
/ DMY 01 / Berlin 2010 / www.numen.eu
/ DMY 01 / Berlin 2010 / www.numen.eu
Floating Greenhouse
From: http://flydendeby.org/projects/floating-green-house
The Floating Green House is a first tiny step towards self sufficiency at sea. Together with compost toilets and biogas digesters, it’s the final step in recirculating organic waste.
This green house is constructed from a scrap boat and a home build plexiglass dome.
The boat is originally wooden, but has later been given a layer of fibre glass. We have taken out the diesel engine and cut open the cabin. The wheelhouse has been turned around to make it part of turtle-like green house shape.
Building with Bulrush
Hardstem Bulrush: easily grown native natural building material
Hardstem bulrush. Photo by Derek Tilley, USDA-NRCS.
eco-materials, sustainable, carbon negative solutions
Advantages
- Grows into 6 foot long rigid stems that are thick and feel stiff like foam core.
- Used by Native Americans to build everything from homes to boats.
- A North-West native wetlands species
- Bulrush is fast-growing, great for ecology, self-seeding
Hardstem Bulrush: Guide
From: https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_scac3.pdf
Alternate Names Common Alternate Names: tule Scientific Alternate Names: Scirpus acutus
Wildlife: Livestock rarely use this species when the area is flooded. They will use it as roughage or in the winter under heavy snow cover because the stems are often protruding above the snow bank. Forage value of hardstem bulrush is rated poor for cattle, sheep, horses, elk, whitetail deer, mule deer, and pronghorn antelope.
Plant Guide Waterfowl will feed on the seed. The dense tules provide excellent nesting cover for numerous waterfowl and wetland birds (Boggs et al., 1990). Muskrats and beaver will eat the rootstock and young shoots. Muskrats also use the stems for building their houses.
Water Treatment/Erosion Control: Hardstem bulrush’s dense root mass makes this species an excellent choice for soil stabilization. Its above ground biomass provides protection from erosive wave action and stream currents that erode shorelines or stream banks. The rhizomatous root system also forms a matrix for many beneficial bacteria, making this plant an excellent choice for wastewater treatment (Hurd et al., 1994).
Ethnobotany: The young sprouts and shoots of hardstem bulrush can be eaten raw or cooked, and the rhizomes and unripe flower heads can be boiled as a vegetable. Hardstem bulrush rhizomes were also sundried and pounded into a kind of flour. Bulrush pollen is eaten as flour in bread, mush or pancakes. The seeds can be beaten off into baskets or pails, ground into meal and used as flour.
Tule houses were common throughout many parts of California; the overlapping tule mats made homes well- insulated and rain-proof. The walls and roofs were thatched with mats of tule or cattail and secured to the frame. In Nevada, tules and willows were bound together in a sort of crude weaving for "Kani", the Paiute name for summerhouse. . Hardstem bulrush was also used to make shoes, skirts, baby diapers, bedding, and duck decoys. Several California Indian tribes make canoes of hardstem bulrush stems bound together with vines from wild grape.
Hardstem bulrush has also been used by Native American tribes medicinally. The Cree used a poultice of stem pith to stop bleeding. Navajo and Ramah tribes used the plant as a ceremonial emetic, and the Thompson tribe placed ashes from burned stems on a newborn’s bleeding naval (Moerman, 2009).
Status Hardstem bulrush is considered threatened in Connecticut and endangered in Pennsylvania (USDA-NRCS, 2011). Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status (e.g., threatened or endangered species, state noxious status, and wetland indicator values).
Description General: Sedge Family (Cyperaceae). Hardstem bulrush is a perennial, rhizomatous, wetland obligate species that reaches up to 3 m (10 ft) in height and forms very dense stands. The stems are upright, gray-green to dark-green, round, 1 to 2 cm (0.4 to 0.8 in) thick and 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 ft) tall. The leaves are few and short, found at or near the base, and commonly have a well developed sheath. The inflorescence is a terminal panicle of 3 to 10 spikes which are made up of up to 50 or more spikelets. Each spike may be on a short pedicel or sessile. The inflorescence is exceeded by a 2.5 to 10 cm (1 to 4 in) lateral bract. The fruit is a dark brown lenticular achene up to 2.5 mm (0.1 in) long (Welsh et al., 2003).
Distribution: Hardstem bulrush occurs throughout North America except for the southeastern states from Louisiana east to Florida and north to Tennessee (USDA-NRCS, 2011). For current distribution, consult the Plant Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.
Habitat: Hardstem bulrush is found at low to mid elevations, generally below 2,300 m (7,500 ft), in inundated to periodically wet areas of marshes, swamps, and meadows and along lake, reservoir, and pond shorelines.
Adaptation Hardstem bulrush forms large, often monoculture, stands with the young plants on the outside and the older plants in the center of a stand. It is generally found in areas of standing water ranging from 10 cm to more than 1.5 m (4 in to 5 ft) in depth. It will not tolerate long periods of very deep water. Hardstem bulrush will grow on soils that range from peat to coarse substrates. It will grow and spread on alkaline, saline, and brackish sites and will re- sprout after fire. Burning increases its production and protein content. Hardstem bulrush reproduces from seed and rhizomes. Rhizomes will spread more than 45 cm (18 in) in one growing season.
Establishment
Wild transplants: Wild plants can be collected and transplanted directly into the desired site. If less than 4 dm2 is removed from any 1-m2 area (1 ft2 in 1 yd2), the hole will fill in within one growing season. Care should be taken not to collect plants from weedy areas as weeds can be relocated to the transplant site.
Planting plugs (either from the greenhouse or wild transplants) is the surest way to establish a new stand of this species. Plug spacing of 30 to 45 cm (12 to 18 in) will fill in the interspaces within one growing season. Soil should be kept saturated. Standing water should be no deeper than 4 to 5 cm (1.5 to 2 in) during the first growing season. Larger transplanted plugs can handle more
standing water if the stems are cut long enough to ensure they are out of the water. Raising and lowering the water level during the establishment period will speed up plant spread and can be used to control weeds (Hoag et al., 1992).
Management Water level in a wetland should be fluctuated from saturated conditions up to a maximum depth of 30 cm (12 in) of standing water for establishing plants. The young plants can handle deeper water, but not for an extended period of time. This species can tolerate periods of drought and total inundation. It will spread into water depths of 1 to 1.5 m (3 to 5 ft). Water levels can be managed to either enhance or reduce spread as well as to control terrestrial weeds. Hardstem bulrush may be replaced by cattail (Typha spp.) if water levels are dropped for an extended period (Harris and Marshall, 1963). Hardstem bulrush re-establish from seed and rhizomes following fires (Smith and Kadlec, 1985).
Pests and Potential Problems Pests are generally not a problem. Aphids will feed on the stems, but generally will not kill the plant.
Environmental Concerns
Hardstem bulrush seeds
Because of its poor forage value, hardstem bulrush can be considered undesirable in flooded meadows and pastures. Hardstem bulrush is native to western North America. It can spread under favorable conditions but does not pose any environmental concern to native plant communities.
Hardstem bulrush seed. Photo by Derek Tilley
Seeds and Plant Production
Hardstem bulrush reproduces sexually by seed and asexually through vegetative spread via rhizomes.
Seed Collection and Cleaning: Seeds ripen in late August to September. Seeds are not held tightly in the seed head, and high winds, frost, and brushing against the seed head will cause the seeds to dislodge. Seed may be collected by hand stripping from the plant or by clipping the seed head using a pair of hand shears.
A hammermill is needed to break up coarse debris and knock seed free from the panicle. Cleaning can be accomplished using a seed cleaner with a No. 12 top screen and a 1.27 mm (1/20 in) bottom screen. Screens should be sized so desired seed will fall through and debris and weed seed are removed. Air velocity should be adjusted so chaff is blown away. Air flow and screen size may require adjustment to optimize the cleaning process for each collection.
Greenhouse Plant Production: Improved germination rates have been achieved with cold/wet stratification treatment with the seeds in a mixture of water and sphagnum moss at 2°C for 30-75 days. Others have found success using a 10% acid wash for 45 minutes followed by a thourough washing then wet pre-chilling the seed for 75 days.
Seed needs light, moisture, and heat for germination. Place seed on the soil surface and press in lightly to assure good soil contact. Do not bury the seed. Soil should be kept moist. Greenhouse temperatures should be maintained at approximately 35 to 38° C (95 to 100° F). Germination should begin within 7 to 10 days. Maintain moisture until plants are to be transplanted.
Cultivars, Improved, and Selected Materials (and area of origin) There are no cultivars, improved, or selected materials of hardstem bulrush. Common wildland collected seed is available from commercial sources (Native Seed Network).
Schoenoplectus acutus (Muhl. ex Bigelow) A. Löve & D. Löve Plant Symbol = SCAC3 - Contributed by: USDA NRCS Idaho Plant Materials Program