An at Home Manual for Urban Grafting

An at Home Manual for Urban Grafting investigates the evolving dynamics between bio-building materials and aging buildings – where their intersection results in a system for urban reuse and climate intervention.
This proposal explores the potential of future urbanism through the introduction of advanced biomaterial envelopes in the form of permanent scaffolding. Extruded realms of space form a network on the surface of existing buildings to support, enhance, and provide beyond its original purposes. Such a system deviates from existing building surface mediations by employing algae and mycelium to achieve results in both realms of reuse and climate positive energy production. As it evolves in time, the intervention intrudes into the existing spaces and creates new typologies centered around current programs, arriving at new urban spatial conditions.
Urban grafting beckons the utility of architectural reuse to adapt existing structures, to evolve needs and sustainability standards mirroring the plasticity seen in grafted plants, and to ensure the longevity and relevance of the current built environment. To raise awareness of the lasting effects of short-lived buildings through the lens of climate change, this project provides a case for biomaterials as a worthy strategy for future building.