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Description

Visiondivision was invited as guest professors by the 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. Visiondivision intention with their 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.

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. Almost all of these techniques were used on this creation, which involved developing a structural system for the building and also stairs and furniture, all made out of trees, plants or grass. The structural frame for this project is made up from ten Japanese cherry trees that were planted in a circle with a diameter of eight meters with a six meter high temporary wood structure in the center that is acting as a guidance tower for the growing structure. The trees were planted with an equal spacing from each other, except for four of them that became two pairs of stairs to the future upper level. The cherry trees were ideal to plant at that time of year and also had great features for achieving the desired structure. Thin ropes were tied around the plants and were slightly bent towards the temporary tower.

As time passes the trees will form a dome when they reach the tower, and then designated by to change its direction so that the final form will be similar to an hourglass; a suiting shape for the project and also a very practical form as we now have two rooms with different modes in the building. The small branches on the plants that will grow into stairs will be guided with wires to each other and will hopefully be useful later on. The rest of the stairs can later be grafted in the stair trees.

On the ground level furniture was designed making use of grass, trees and plants. There will be a dining group consisting of a table with four chairs. The chairs are plum trees where one sit at the lowest fork and the branches are guided into canopies so the future visitor can sit in the chair while at the same time eating delicious fruits. The table is made out of slender wooden pieces with strings in the structure, which forms a skeleton where vines can grow and later take over the structure completely. A grass chair and a grass puff were also conceived. The upper level which will be reached by two staircases with exquisite handrails, is different fruit trees grafted into the cherry trees so the visitor can have a variety of fruits while relaxing in the canopy. Branches are also grafted in for security reasons between the tree trunks. In about 80 years from now the Politecnico di Milano campus will have a fully grown building and the students will hopefully have proud grandchildren that can tell the story of the project for their friends and family.

Biography

Visiondivision is an architecture firm based in Stockholm, Sweden founded in 2005 by Anders Berensson and Ulf Mejergren. The office has been operating in The Netherlands, Mexico, Bolivia, USA and Argentina with great success. The studio deals with all kinds of architecture and design problems and with any client, always with the promise of making it first priority. The office does not have a fixed design idea. Things that make this practice stand out is its braveness, cleverness and ability to think inventive.

The office is one of the most published firms in Europe and have already received several prices and mentions and even though its members are young, the team has experience from the most important contemporary architectural studios in the world like OMA for and the firm has happy clients all over the globe. Visiondivision is good at making conceptual designs and unique solutions for their client and is not afraid to expand its role as architects to solve any kind of design problem. The team has also extensive detailing and construction knowledge and has always been deeply involved in the building process, sometimes even building the projects by themselves.