Waste House Award for Circular Design Prize 2020 Nominee

The RIBA (Sussex Branch) Prize 2020 Nominee

–                      Ecological Tower – Cohabitation between culture and nature                       –

Architecture has long been designated as a structure for humans, setting borders to nature. In other words, architecture tends to force nature to adapt to man-made infrastructure. The negative impact of the traditional building industry on the environment appears to create an ecological crisis. A possible alternative approach to architecture is to co-design with respect to nature. Projects involving nature are often prototyped at the scale of the branch and tree. Co-designing at architectural scales is less convincing in the context of designing with the eco-system.

In this research study, I am exploring the integration of a forest eco-system with a tower typology as a provocation, questioning how co-design strategies might be applied on a more architectural scale.

Living soil is one of the proposals that help to introduce the eco-system. Building material and the structural system could be integrated with the living soil which generates a continuous development of eco-system. Human interaction also plays a critical role in seeding development. Moreover, our perception of nature is important in exploring the conduct of co-designing with nature. It creates a new understanding of nature and culture which also identifies the current ecological crisis. The proposed concept of co-designing with the eco-system reveals that architecture is the medium of culture to nature. The research then leads to a more in-depth understanding of ecology and of a system that works with it.