Those familiar with Paul Laffoley will be excited to see this project:
The Fab Tree Hab — a home literally made from trees, using an ancient technique called pleaching (the art of weaving (and sometimes grafting) trees together to form structures) — was one of the design entries for the Index: awards, emerging from the genius of a crew including MIT architect Mitchell Joachim and our friend, Javier Arbona of Archinect. The project description emphasized consideration of whole systems (and ecosystems) in creating a truly sustainable built environment, rather than a piecemeal approach that could yield uncertain longterm outcomes.
World Changing: Grow Your Own Treehouse and other thoughts on Ecological Architecture
See also: Influences on Archinode’s Fab Tree Hab
March 14, 2007 at 2:22 pm
When the Boston Globe posted the article about Mitchell Joachim’s designs for living architecture, there was not even a slight mention of Paul Laffoley’s development of the idea some 30 years prior. Though Joachim’s work can be appreciated for its technical execution, it must be examined with previous acknowledgment of its source of inspiration.
April 6, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Many people and ideas influenced the Fab Tree Hab that date back long before the eccentric Laffoley;
Marc-Antoine Laugier. Primitive Hut, and
An Essay on Architecture, 1753.
Arthur Wiechula. Wachsende häuser aus lebenden bäumen entstehend (Living trees grow into homes). Paul Zimmermann, Berlin, 1923.
April 6, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Thanks Archinode. Those are some interesting early examples – I’ve done a fresh blog post to highlight them.
There’s also a complete reference list here:
http://www.archinode.com/Arch9fab.html
And it does include Paul’s work.