A Munich professor wants to combine nature and technology in house construction by blending trees and plants with the building façades.
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Urban planning |Not only children dream of the tree house. A Munich professor of landscape architecture also implements this dream for adults. However, different than you would expect. Ferdinand Ludwig does not build a house in a treetop. He lets trees work for himself. Under their guidance, they grow together in such a way that it gradually becomes a building structure.
It does not just provide a living or working space. It also improves the climate in the city. The green leaves filter dirt from the air, cool the environment and provide shade. Ludwig achieves this result with a combination of architecture and technology. His research field is called Baubotanik.
Plants in the city are important. Parks and street trees are not only good for the soul of the inhabitants. They also help to improve the climate in urban areas. This is all the more true the more climate change becomes noticeable. But it takes years or even decades for a newly planted tree to serve well. Green facades are an attempt to accelerate this process. A recreational effect such as parks and groups of trees but these can only provide limited. Architect Ludwig, therefore, tries to connect both ways. He is working to make the "built environment" greener, instead of only later greening.
Fussing nature and technology
"A façade must not only look inward, for example through its thermal insulation," says Ludwig. He demands that buildings also have a positive effect on their environment. This works best through the natural green. The Baubotanik researches for technical and biological possibilities, how house and plant can be combined.
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Under the canopy. In the shade of the leaves, you can relax well - for example with reading from the bookshelf. © Ferdinand Ludwig
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The most important technique for Ludwig and his colleagues is plant addition. In the process, trees are connected with each other and with non-living construction elements in such a way that they grow together into a composite structure: individual plants merge to form a new, larger organism. Technical elements grow into this vegetable structure.
The energy requirement for cooling drops
To get the plants that far, Ludwig and his team use proprietary methods. Young, rooted in special containers plants are arranged and connected together so that they grow together to a plant timber structure. "We're not building a replacement for building walls, it's about creating a secondary shell around a building," says Ludwig. This case then stands in front of a glass facade. Through the leaves, they reduce the energy needed to cool the building by a third says the architect.
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Most of the time stairwells are rather bleak - this one definitely not. © Ferdinand Ludwig
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Initially, the researchers supply the individual plants with water and nutrients and keep them in shape with auxiliary frameworks. After some time, the trees are thicker, they develop a self-supporting and resilient structure, the scaffolding will be superfluous. Above all, it is possible to transport water, nutrients and assimilates from the lowest root to the topmost leaf. The lowest plants set in the ground develop a powerful root system. The root system of the upper plants can be cut.
Little space for new concepts
In this way, Ludwig manages to combine the rapid availability of building greening with the durability and long-term robustness of trees. Immediately after completion, a relatively high leaf mass is present. Unlike many greening systems, these structures do not have to be watered and fertilized permanently. In the long term, they achieve the robustness of naturally grown trees.
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The architect Bengt Warne planned glass houses, heated by the sun and green all year round. A Swedish couple has now built one.
Life
There are still a few examples of the implementation of this technique. The industry is conservative, says Ludwig. He speaks of an "investor logic" in which as dense and much as possible. There is often little room for new ideas and concepts. The architecture researcher from Munich Ante "plane tree cube" is growing. Also in the Swabian Laupheim is a work of the office. There, a schoolyard was transformed with the innovative technology into a green paradise.
ORIGINAL: Edison.Handelsblat.com
By Susanne Frank | February 21, 2019
Baubotanik: Hybrid-Häuser aus Bäumen
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