Growing buildings

Abstract

In recent years, architecture has shifted towards more sustainable and circular design. The scarcity of building materials and environmental awareness of the building industry generated a need for new techniques and developments, pushing architects and designers to increasingly turn towards biological and natural processes. Nonetheless, the related insight is still scattered, whereas the growth and development of new technologies are constantly accelerating.
The urgent need for new, sustainable solutions is clearly visible in the Dutch housing market. At the start of 2018, the Netherlands had a shortage of around 205 thousand homes. By 2020, that shortage is expected to reach 235 thousand homes. Not enough dwellings are being provided to fill this gap. Furthermore, the majority of homes constructed now are designed for so-called ‘starters’ - providing studio or one-bedroom apartments for people entering the housing market, creating an unsustainable unbalance in the variety of dwellings.
The primary aim of the project was to indicate a new approach towards modern, sustainable and circular architecture, by designing not only a building but primarily a circular housing typology with building elements and materials prepared on site by the living organism, providing food and energy for inhabitants. Hence the final product, despite being designed on a specific location (Binckhorst, the Hague), is transferable to other positions, and flexibility embedded in the very idea of the project allows for further modifications.