Philipp Gruber explores with his graduation project to what extent a multi-species design practice in architecture based on affordances helps to stimulate a symbiotic relationship between architecture and biodiversity.
After 25 Years: Model 1:33 – View from the front (l) and view from the back (r)
Can you (briefly) explain your choice of subject?
During my bachelor’s degree in architecture at THWS Würzburg, I became fascinated by working at the intersection between architecture and ecology. My personal interest in an architectural design practice for multi-species users grew when I designed and built a biodiversity hotel for the Stichting Dakdorpen in Rotterdam in early 2022. While studying in Porto/Portugal, I explored the city’s post-industrial ruins being overgrown with trees and plants. For my graduation project at TU Delft, I decided to investigate multi-species ways of designing in line with the ongoing ecological succession in Palacío Ford, which is one of Porto‘s ruins.
What or who are your sources of inspiration and can you briefly explain this?
My main sources of inspiration are forests and the city as a multi-species habitat. I like studying and observing how other life forms co-inhabit our urban spaces and interact with architecture. I am also inspired by vernacular architecture, traditional building techniques, living trees, gardens, and historical forms of living in climate-adapted ways.
Growing Architecture – Designing a 35-year process of a living, ever-growing architecture, in which architectural structures are created through the interaction of plant growth and technical, non-living elements provided by humans.
State and (briefly) describe the key moment in your graduation project
Certainly, the key moment during the project was when I decided to design a living architecture that can host humans and non-humans. Living architecture refers to designing and building with living, ever-growing tree structures. Trees and human spaces merge into integral entities that form the urban environment. To be able to design a growing architectural process, I purchased the book Growing Architecture: How to Design and Build with Trees by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ferdinand Ludwig, on which I fundamentally based my work. I remember running to the bookshop to get the last copy. I was immediately immersed in radically new approaches to architecture.
Can you (briefly) explain what design(ing) means to you?
To me, designing means forming objects, substances, or surfaces that meet the needs of both humans, animals and plants. To this end, I believe that architects must adopt a reflective multi-species design position. This means developing objects as reciprocal entities that improve the possibilities and conditions for both human and non-human life forms.
After 25 Years: Climate Concept – The tree crown allows to live in harmony with the changing seasons, which affects spaces and climate.
What hope / do you want to achieve as a designer in the near and / or the distant future?
By carrying out practice-based research, I aim to develop frameworks to assist architects and designers in the implementation of multi-species design. Through their application, I hope that design can promote both urban biodiversity and human well-being in the future.
After 25 Years: Model 1:33 and Floor Plan – Communal and individual spaces with outdoor verandas inside the tree crown
Project text
Cities are dynamic habitats for both people, animals, and plants. Yet architecture as a design discipline is primarily focused on human needs, neglecting other species and thus, the potential of architecture to promote biodiversity. The research of my project explores to what extent a multi-species design practice in architecture based on affordances helps to stimulate a symbiotic relationship between architecture and biodiversity.
Affordances describe the relation between the environment and its multi-species actors, and are defined as possibilities for action provided to an animal [including humans] by the environment— by the substances, surfaces, objects, and other living creatures that surround it (Kiverstein, Rietveld, 2014). Understanding affordances helps to design objects that better align with the abilities and needs of multi-species city dwellers that interact with architecture and urban space. To this end, architects must adopt a reflective design position and develop their objects as reciprocal entities that enhance the possibilities and conditions for human and non-human species.
The design of my project proposes a multi-species residency contributing to the growth of an urban forest at the post-industrial ruin “Palácio Ford”. The interventions are Baubotanik structures, hybrid constructions between nature and humans forming a living and ever-growing architecture. In this process, trees are guided in their growth in such a way that they fuse with non-living elements, establishing a symbiosis between nature and technology. The project envisions a paradigm shift in urban habitation. Spaces become inseparable from the natural world, promoting ecological resilience by enriching the urban environment with diverse life forms. In this multi-species design approach, the architect’s role extends beyond traditional design to initiating a collaborative process in which trees actively shape the built environment.
Living in an Urban Forest – Trees and human spaces merge into integral entities, forming an urban forest inhabitable by human and non-human dwellers.
name
Philipp Gruber
email
instagram
graduation period
September 2022 – July 2023
education
Technische Universiteit Delft, Faculteit Bouwkunde
