Conference Proceedings 2010 [pdf] - Art & Design Symposium ...

housing method for refugees. The project proposed here does not just examine nature and natural processes;
it uses these natural processes to create a structure that helps sustain humans and nature simultaneously.
The Growing Home project is also a study of the subsequent interiors in these structures, likewise comprised
of growing elements. The interior of a structure must interact with its user in a more immediate way than the
exterior. This project will examine how such a design can fulfill the need for shelter, and the traditions of home,
as opposed to house. This project would promote the idea of making living spaces that are deeply connected
with the earth; a house made of living plants.
The project will be comprised of two different types of structures to test two separate theories. The first type of
living structure will be planted and grown into its design. For the second type of living house, mature bamboo
with be pleached, or grown together as it stands in the ground. In both cases, the procedure will involve
creating the structure’s frame entirely of bamboo. An established agricultural technique, pleaching, will be used
to grow the structure bamboo into a unified whole. Pleaching involves the creation of a smaller frame of cut
and living bamboo within the larger frame of living, structural bamboo. This woven framework around the
pleached growing elements will act as a flexible moisture barrier for the structural bamboo.
A bamboo structural framework will be grown and kept growing as the rest of the structure is built. There will be
a layer of weaving using strips of bamboo in such a way as to separate the structure from the adobe cob
mixture so that the interior is able to function as needed and so the exterior planted structure can grow as
intended. The estimated cost for required materials is dependent on the size of the end product structure. For
this thesis a small home to accommodate the typical family of the Bhutanese stateless person is being
modeled. This sample family will include one paternal grandmother, one paternal aunt, both maternal
grandparents a mother and father, as well as two children. This structure could be grown as large as
necessary to allow the extended family living situation as traditional in Nepal (Andrea Matles Savada, 1991).
An adobe-cob mixture would be used as the interior for the structure. There is a range of soils in Nepal, from
thin, desert type solids on the highest mountains, to rich alluvial soils in the valleys; all but the desert type soils
have clay substance (Negi, 1994). Residual soils are mostly coarse and dry but mixing water and residue plant
matter can help to create the needed cob composition.
In creating an effective adobe or cob mixture Gerot Minke, author of Building with Earth, provides excellent
reasons for why an adobe-cob mixture is a positive choice for building. Adobe- cob is molded, much like clay
to incorporate built in storage, and other design features within the walls. Adobe-cob is also a material that can
be created and used by unskilled workers with little training, but has efficient and effective insulation and
shelter properties (Minke, 2006).
Neomorphism
The idea of creating structures out of live biological materials, like the “Growing Home” as this thesis proposes,
is being experimented with as more sustainable ways of building are sought. Although many of these projects
are still conceptual, the integration of them into the narrative of design is necessary for the growth of design as
a whole, in this author’s opinion. Such a combination of nature and human building requires a new design
vocabulary to describe the design project. This design language, termed Neomorphism, is the new design term
illustrated in this poster.
The Latin root neo means new and morphism descends from morph, which means to change. Literally, “New
Growing” symbolizes the progressive nature of the projects without creating a definitive label that would
constrict or limit the concept of what neomorphism is or could be.
Neomorphic Design describes all projects that use living organic materials in the design. Because of the use of
actual living elements within Neomorphic designs, each has the potential of constant evolution as a design
product and creation. Neomorphism is a language that combines neoplasmatism, morphogenesis, bioarchitecture
and other terms within design and art in which the growing elements of the design program
change in some way as a contribution of the creation. This design language uses adjectives and verbs
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