PROTOHAB
Project: Prototyping an Integrated Facade System for Spontaneous Multi-Species Habitation
Collaborating departments: Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management (TUM); Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning (Technion)
To improve the co-habitation between humans and other animals in cities, new approaches are necessary that take advantage of the latest technologies, including computational architecture. Vertical building surfaces in cities appear as promising zones for interventions to support biodiversity, as they represent vast surface areas, are mostly inaccessible to people, and can be modified to offer food and shelter resources to various animal and plant species. Research into the ecological potential of man-made walls points at specific geometric formations, such as cracks, fissures, ledges, and micro-textures, that can contribute to making cities more biodiversity-rich. Architects' current computational design tools enable the modelling of geometrical features that could be used to design integrated species-rich façades for spontaneous biodiversity. Designing such a façade for a given building needs to integrate information on local ecological conditions to evaluate the biodiversity outcomes. In addition, feedback on recent architectural projects show that the lack of social acceptance of an increased presence of biodiversity can be a limitation to the development of such projects.
The project is organised along three axes of research:
- Axis 1: Defining the ecological potential and design objectives of a site. This entails the use of ecological models and the empirical evaluation of the performance of façade mock-ups through biodiversity monitoring.
- Axis 2: Integrating ecology into façade modelling. This entails bringing ecological requirements into computational design generation and façade prototyping.
- Axis 3: Evaluating the perception and the level of acceptance of IFS. This entails the use of questionnaires and socio-ecological analyses.
Team
Coordinating Postdoc
Dr. Victoria Culshaw
Chair for Terrestrial Ecology | TUM
Doctoral Candidate
Laura Windorfer
Chair for Terrestrial Ecology
Department of Life Science Systems | TUM
Doctoral Candidate
Andrew Fairbairn
Chair for Terrestrial Ecology
Department of Life Science Systems | TUM
Principal Investigator
Professor Dr. Wolfgang Weisser
Chair for Terrestrial Ecology
Department of Life Science Systems | TUM
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor Shany Barath
Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning | Technion