Baubotanik is a building method in which architectural structures are created through the interaction of technical joints and plant growth. [1] [2] The term entails the practice of designing and building living structures using living plants. [3] In this regard, living and non-living elements are intertwined in such a way that they grow together into plant-technical composite structures. [4]
The Baubotanik method combines the aesthetic and ecological qualities of living trees with the static functions and structural requirements of buildings, thereby reducing the need for artificial building materials. [5] The structures provide valuable habitats for a variety of animal species and make conventional foundations redundant, due to their root anchorage. [6]
The use of Baubotanik is not a new invention and can be found in various historical and cultural contexts, such as the Tanzlinden (“dancing lime”) tree in Germany and living root bridge in North-East India. [7] Common in the Indian state of Meghalaya and grown by the Khasi and Jaintia, the bridges consist of the aerial roots of rubber fig trees (Ficus elastica) and are grown over rivers to form walkable bridges. [8] While the process can take fifteen years to complete, the bridges can be reinforced with natural materials and can withstand the strongest tropical storms. [9] Furthermore, since the turn of the millennium, ‘willow churches’ (made of willow rods and lacking a fixed roof) have been constructed on various former garden show grounds, yet provide only limited functionality as buildings. [10]
An early publication in this field of study was the article Baubotanik: Mit lebenden Pflanzen konstruieren (translating to “Baubotanik: Designing with Living Plants) by Ferdinand Ludwig and Oliver Storz in 2005 in the magazine Baumeister. [11] The term “Baubotanik” was defined in 2007 at the Institute of Theory of Architecture and Design (Institut für Grundlagen moderner Architektur und Entwerfen) at the University of Stuttgart, where its concept was scientifically further developed. [12] Within the scope of the research, simple experimental buildings were constructed, such as a footbridge and a Baubotanik tower that illustrated the possibilities of creating larger Baubotanik structures by adding individual plants. [13] [14] Moreover, a two-story bird-watching station was planted in the town of Waldkirchen as part of the Bavarian State Horticultural Show 2007. Subsequently, a three-story plane tree cube was created for the Baden-Württemberg State Horticultural Show 2012 in Nagold. [15]
Since 2017, the Baubotanik field of research has been based at the Professorship for Green Technologies in Landscape Architecture at the Technical University of Munich. [16]
The Technical University of Munich is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences.
A green wall is a vertical built structure intentionally covered by vegetation. Green walls include a vertically applied growth medium such as soil, substitute substrate, or hydroculture felt; as well as an integrated hydration and fertigation delivery system. They are also referred to as living walls or vertical gardens, and widely associated with the delivery of many beneficial ecosystem services.
Freising is a university town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising Landkreis (district), with a population of about 50,000.
The buildings and architecture of Chicago reflect the city's history and multicultural heritage, featuring prominent buildings in a variety of styles. Most structures downtown were destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.
Ficus benjamina, commonly known as weeping fig, benjamin fig or ficus tree, and often sold in stores as just ficus, is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae, native to Asia and Australia. It is the official tree of Bangkok. The species is also naturalized in the West Indies and in the states of Florida and Arizona in the United States.. Its small fruit are favored by some birds.
Ficus microcarpa, also known as Chinese banyan, Malayan banyan, Indian laurel, curtain fig, or gajumaru (ガジュマル), is a tree in the fig family Moraceae. It is native in a range from China through tropical Asia and the Caroline Islands to Australia. It is widely planted as a shade tree and frequently misidentified as the Balete tree: F. retusa or F. nitida.
A simple suspension bridge is a primitive type of bridge in which the deck of the bridge lies on two parallel load-bearing cables that are anchored at either end. They have no towers or piers. The cables follow a shallow downward catenary arc which moves in response to dynamic loads on the bridge deck.
Ficus elastica, the rubber fig, rubber bush, rubber tree, rubber plant, or Indian rubber bush, Indian rubber tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae, native to eastern parts of South and Southeast Asia. It has become naturalized in Sri Lanka, the West Indies, and the US state of Florida. Despite its common names, it is not used in the commercial production of natural rubber.
Ken Yeang is an architect, ecologist, planner and author from Malaysia, best known for his ecological architecture and ecomasterplans that have a distinctive green aesthetic. He pioneered an ecology-based architecture, working on the theory and practice of sustainable design. The Guardian newspaper (2008) named him "one of the 50 people who could save the planet". Yeang's headquarters is in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) as Hamzah & Yeang, with offices in London (UK) as Llewelyn Davies Ken Yeang Ltd. and Beijing (China) as North Hamzah Yeang Architectural and Engineering Company.
Tree shaping uses living trees and other woody plants as the medium to create structures and art. There are a few different methods used by the various artists to shape their trees, which share a common heritage with other artistic horticultural and agricultural practices, such as pleaching, bonsai, espalier, and topiary, and employing some similar techniques. Most artists use grafting to deliberately induce the inosculation of living trunks, branches, and roots, into artistic designs or functional structures.
Sustainable landscape architecture is a category of sustainable design concerned with the planning and design of the built and natural environments.
Bionic architecture is a contemporary movement that studies the physiological, behavioural, and structural adaptions of biological organisms as a source of inspiration for designing and constructing expressive buildings. These structures are designed to be self-sufficient, being able to structurally modify themselves in response to the fluctuating internal and external forces such as changes in weather and temperature.
Dr. Udo Weilacher is a German landscape architect, author and Professor for Landscape Architecture.
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings or other structures. The term comes from Latin architectura; from Ancient Greek ἀρχιτέκτων (arkhitéktōn) 'architect'; from ἀρχι- (arkhi-) 'chief' and τέκτων (téktōn) 'creator'. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilisations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.
Living root bridges are a kind of tree shaping in which rivers are spanned by architecture formed out of the roots of ficus plants. Due to their being made from living, growing, trees, they "show a very wide variety of structural typologies, with various aspects of particular bridges resembling characteristics of suspension bridges, cable-stayed bridges, arches, trusses, and simply-supported beams." They are common in the Indian state of Meghalaya.
Ferdinand Ludwig is a German architect and the head of the professorship for Green Technologies in Landscape Architecture at the Technical University of Munich. Ludwig is a pioneer of and innovator in the field of Baubotanik, the architectural realm of living plant construction.
The TUM School of Engineering and Design is a school of the Technical University of Munich, established in 2021 by the merger of four departments. As of 2022, it is structured into the Department of Aerospace & Geodesy, the Department of Architecture, the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, the Department of Energy & Process Engineering, the Department of Engineering Physics & Computation, the Department of Materials Engineering, the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and the Department of Mobility Systems Engineering.
The TUM School of Life Sciences is a school of the Technical University of Munich, located at its Weihenstephan campus in Freising. It encompasses the life sciences, in particular biology, agricultural science, food technology, landscape architecture, biotechnology, and nutrition.
There are various methods of tree shaping. There are strengths and weaknesses to each method as well commendable tree species for each process. Some of these processes are still experimental, whereas others are still in the research stage. These methods use a variety of horticultural and arboricultural techniques to achieve an intended design. Chairs, tables, living spaces and art may be shaped from growing trees. Some techniques used are unique to a particular practice, whereas other techniques are common to all, though the implementation may be for different reasons. These methods usually start with an idea of the intended outcome. Some practitioners start with detailed drawings or designs. Other artists start with what the tree already has. Each method has various levels of involvement from the tree shaper.
The TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology (CIT) is a school of the Technical University of Munich, established in 2022 by the merger of three former departments. As of 2022, it is structured into the Department of Mathematics, the Department of Computer Engineering, the Department of Computer Science, and the Department of Electrical Engineering.