Urban Microclimate Canopy: Design, Manufacture, Installation, and Growth Simulation of a Living Architecture Prototype

Urban Microclimate Canopy is a digitally fabricated fiber glass structure supporting climbing plants in order to explore new ways of integrating vegetation in densely built urban environments. A prototype was designed and manufactured in the context of an interdisciplinary studio with master’s students following an approach of research by design. Varying the assembly of winding frames and fiber weaving syntax generates diverse geometric shape and structural performance. For two short-term exhibitions, ivy plants were temporarily installed in the structure. This first step was followed with a reflection of systematic integration of the growth processes of climbing plants and parametric design. An iterative solution is given, consisting of a feedback loop linking the design of the technical structure, the simulation of plant growth, and the simulation of the environmental effects of the hybrid structure. To achieve this a novel framework for simulating twining plant’s growth on network-like structures is presented: external stimuli define a cone-shaped circumnutation space (searching space model) which results in a climbing path (climbing steps model). The framework is constructed to integrate improved individual functions (such as stimuli of circumnutation) for better simulation results. To acquire more knowledge about interactions between the plants and the fiber structure, the prototype was installed permanently and planted with three different climbing plants, representing different climbing mechanisms.