Living in the Plants

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Living in the Plants

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Finalist, Andes Sprouts Society, Competition: Given the budgetary constraints, nomadic program, limited availability of local materials and the remote verdant site, we propose to grow, rather than build the three houses for Andes Society. Instead of spending precious resources on the synthetic materials & substances that constitute majority of building construction today, we propose an architectural flowerbox – easily built and un-built, sited delicately on the site and keyed into local solar and wind exposure. The residence will be both a home for an artist and an armature for vegetation where plant material will serve as envelope enclosure, weather & wind insulation, sun shading and provide aesthetic pleasure of living in the garden combined with the pragmatic convenience of a productive vegetable patch immediately outside the kitchen window.

In this project, the architecture embraces the limited resources as an opportunity to create a poetic sequence along the fields and garden plots already on the site, through the new vegetable screens, herb and flower boxes outside the studio windows, vines as insulation for the room, vine cables forming an outdoor porch finally trellising the arbor at the entrance. Furthermore, this is also a research opportunity: as an experiment in vertical gardening, the southern façade acts as the productive vertical landscape – open to the elements during the summer, the soil boxes are angled to the best growing conditions for berries, lettuce, tomatoes, peas, and other crops.
These plants are tended by the farmers and harvested by the residents – fostering collaboration and exchange of ideas between local residence and the visitors. During the winter months, the evergreen vines continue to provide insulation and a wind break from the west/northwest winds. On along the north-exposed facade the vine cables that each resident is responsible for the staking in the ground form a trellis, marking each residence unique for each individual artist.

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Austin+Mergold

Architecture

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Living in the Plants

Living in the Plants

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team