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Interlink
Imagine a building that grows, breaths and heals itself. Interlink is about reconnecting with the natural world; a breathing organism as home. This project is an exploration towards living architecture, in which humanity will inhabit mycelium-based pods. By nurturing the architecture, the inhabitant can extend its stay and truly become part of nature’s closed loop system.
To prevent the earth from heating up further and being exploited, the current way of building must change fundamentally. In contrast to mankind’s 200.000 years of parasitism, Mother Nature has been leading the way for 3.8 billions years by growing architecture. What if we could actually grow homes?
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While most researchers had their eyes on the plants and organisms above ground, recent discoveries show that earth's most crucial creatures live underneath us. Over 92% of all plants species rely on mycelium and its ability to recycle organic matter into key nutrients for seedlings to flourish. It is a vast underground network that connects the roots of plants. Not only does ‘Natures Internet’ share nutrients, it is also able to communicate and distribute information.
This project is the result of one year research and development at the TU Delft with expertise from TU Eindhoven & Vrije Universiteit Utrecht/Brussel. Furthermore, the involvement of international industry leaders such as Ecovative, Bolt and CNC Exotic Mushrooms, made this project a success. Together with Bert Rademakers from CNC Exotic Mushrooms and TU Delft professors (Dr. E. Karana & Prof.ir. P.G. Luscuere) the exhibition at the Dutch Design Week will be guided and executed.
​The only constant is change. So why build static buildings? Let us embrace temporality. Mankind has lost its knowledge of and respect for the laws of nature. We remove algae from our facades, we idealize eternal life and are afraid of death. This system is designed to restore the relation between humanity and nature.
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Interlink is the world's first living building. A new construction method that is biobased, renewable and scalable. Small living mycelium-based pods are placed in a wooden mega structure. Once they have grown themselves in place, they must be maintained. Hereby creating a new relationship between humanity and its architecture, where the user determines the lifespan of a building through adequate care.
It is meant to replace the mechanical analogy of orthodox modern architecture it compared buildings and cities to an energy process found in all of life, the cycle of change. The constant renewal of and destruction of organic tissue.
​When cities are seen as organisms that changes at various rates, it reflects our feelings that human society must be regarded as one part of a continuous natural entity that includes all animals and plants. Inspired by the post-war Japanese architectural movement Metabolism, a wooden mega structure is proposed to uplift the underground mycelium network.
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