‘Botany Building’ Raises Structures From the Earth

A team of young German architects is envisioning a new method of construction that challenges our very notion of building materials. Many a design plan strives for an ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ appearance, one that seems to blend into and coexist with its environment, but Oliver Storz, Ferdinand Ludwig, and Hannes Schwertfeger, are constructing buildings from the environment itself, bending and grafting trees around and into each other to form sophisticated structures. The architects build their ‘arbo-architecture’ structures around metal support frames, which guide and constrict the growth of young trees into set forms. Once they mature, they are pruned so that they meld into one organism strong enough to support a roof and flooring, making the hybrid structure fully functional.

[via designboom]