Abstract:
The investigation in Plantitecture looks at architectural problems in a different way to the usual methods and ideas to tackle contemporary issues. The architectural surface is understood as res for the criticism of plant materiality where plants will be the argument to criticize the modern aesthetic of material surface. Timber and concrete are examples of representation to the current architectural palette that come from the attributes of the modern age. My proposal of Plantitecture investigates such plant material as the architectural palette of a contemporary architecture surface. The language of plants is part of the architectural investigation of contemporary architectural palette as the materiality of plants contributes to the argument of a contemporary materiality. Developing a method to the thought process about ‘Plantitecture’ will benefi t a methodical approach defi ned by drawing and design. Evidence have shown of plants having a long but buried history in architectural discourse. The underlying problem in the architectural methodology of today is that its methodical approach deals with architectural argument through the traits of a modernist attitude in architecture, resulting in architectural arguments that conclude to the singular representation of answer in an autonomous building. Plantitecture methodology deals with the same architectural arguments but through the culmination of smaller architectural movements. Plantitecture aims to design the palette to ‘contemporise’ the architectural surface in the four steps: - Identify and discover scenarios for a critique between a built environment where fundamental attributes of a contemporary materiality frame the architectural surface as modernist materiality and planted surface - Initiate transformation of a contemporary materiality by pronouncing designable components. - Manipulate detail moments to refl ect and control light levels of the contemporary environment for plant growth and human vision. - Conclude the transformation of materiality by the identifi cation of key components of the new evolved ecology. Evolution of contemporary architecture is revealed by a critique on the modernist ideas of aesthetics. The modernist aesthetic identifi es the application of material as the surface in architecture. The consideration of plant material further develops the contemporary architectural surface. It is alive and it is animated, not simply the static surface of the modernist palette. The consideration of context, in relation to our built ecologies, allows the shift in a modernist materiality to the development of contemporary philosophy about materials. The static now moves forward, evolving the inclusion of plants material in architecture and adds to the different view of understanding about the architecture surface. At multiple levels we come to understand a contemporary materiality of plants both actual and refl ected. As the historical argument in architecture attributes to the modernist philosophy about architectural surface, the notion of plants in the historic argument in architecture contributes to a contemporary understanding of plant as a contemporary architectural materiality. The contemporary examples suggests that the plant material in architecture is a reason to continuously develop and push technology. The argument is that the plant material in architecture is the shift towards the aesthetic of the screen, with refl ection and animation providing a live surface that encloses our real spaces. This thesis has developed a methodology to highlight that plant material operates as an architectural surface to allow a ‘green’ and contemporary materiality. This argument suggests plant material along with the digital realm builds a contemporary materiality through the aesthetic structures of the screen. Glass and plants act as the generative palette in architecture to manipulate light levels in a contemporary built environment. Plants can work as a metaphysical attribute to glass through refl ection and light being the component to construct contemporary materiality. Plantitecture as a design palette can open up the design investigation of plants and glass which can also equate to the argument for contemporary architecture materiality.The architectural design palette therefore allows the language of plants and glass as a generative play on manipulating light levels in a contemporary built environment.