The Patient Gardener

Visiondivision, an architecture firm founded in Stockholm, Sweden by Anders Berensson and Ulf Mejergren in 2005, last week unveiled plans for--and broke ground on--a new organic structure in Milan made from cherry trees.


From their website:
"Visiondivision was invited as guest professors by Politecnico di Milano for their week-long workshop MIAW2.
The workshop, playing with the metaphor of forests, aimed to generate new visions to explain the contemporary and immediate future ways of being in the spirit of green design, resilience, recycling, and ethical consciousness.
Our intention with our project was to construct a study retreat at the campus with patience as the main key for the design. If we can be patient with the building time we can reduce the need for transportation, waste of material and different manufacturing processes, simply by helping nature grow in a more architectonic and useful way. The final result can be enjoyed at Politecnico di Milano in about 60 years from now.

During the workshop we gave nature all the guidance and directions to help it grow into useful structures and objects.
There are different methods and tools to guide and control the growth of trees and plants; bending, twisting, pruning, grafting, braiding, weaving and to control the amount of water and light the trees get are just some examples of these.
We used almost all of these techniques in our creation, which involved creating a structural system for the building and also stairs and furnitures, all made out of trees, plants or grass."

The only disappointing part is that it will take so long to grow... I guess I am not a very patient gardener but the issue is that I probably won't be around to see it completed. But I like knowing that it is growing and will exist someday...

http://www.visiondivision.com/