the mushrooms would then be hung from the final arch

The planks were then nailed together and erected into an arch that stretched across a tree that stood in the middle

The crates were broken into their individual planks and then had all nails removed

We collected these wooden crates from different sites to use in order to build our installation

We left the mushrooms aside to grow whilst the installation was to be built

we planted the mushrooms in plastic bottles with coffee

Day 6
The project was finished, and the exhibition complete! A video installation and posters informed visitors of the aims of the project and how it was achieved, and the mushrooms were hung from the frame. The mushrooms haven’t yet grown from the mould, but overall the project was successful in that everyone got to contribute to the designing and building process, and could grow their very own part of the overall project. I thoroughly enjoyed the project MushFarm, and I am impressed with the outcome of the team to create the functional and beautiful installation.

Day 5
The exhibition was discussed for the mushroom farm, and was decided there would be a looping film on display to show the process of building the farm structure, with posters explaining the concept of the project, the trip to the Biospheric Foundation that gave inspiration to the idea of recycling materials to create food, and how the mushrooms were grown.

Day 4+
The building process of the structure was started and finished, and the pallets were separated into single planks and made into an arc. These single planks were drilled together in two arc halves, and connected at the end to create one large arc that utilised the tree as a central organic figure.

Day 4
The mushroom bottles are beginning to grow white fungus-mould across the surface! These will soon be ready to slash open and spark the fast growth of mushrooms from the mould.

Day 3+
We settled on the idea of a large arching build, that utilised the tree as a central point and would have an organic and beautiful curve to it, to allow the mushroom baskets to be suspended. This could also be sat on either side, with the idea people could walk under the arch to pick mushrooms, and relax and eat them upon the side-benches.

Day 3
We imported the pallets and began brainstorming group ideas of how to put them together. (draw some quick plans of some ideas). Ideas included a cantilever, hanging mushrooms, stacked piles of crates, curving around the floorspace, seating or steps, ect.

Day 2+
We began planting the mushrooms. We layered them within recycled coffee grounds in plastic bottles, utilising waste products, and watered the coffee. We put the lids on lightly so as to allow a little air to the bottle, spurring the growth of (hopefully) white mould across the coffee.

Day 2
Changes in plans had us revising the original idea of using recycled tesco green plastic crates to using recycled wooden pallets, which were more readily available. Due to this change there were fewer units of material to build with, so the groups merged to make one big farm rather than three individual ones.

Day 1+
We got split into three groups of four, and each group could design a build for the farm. We spent the day brainstorming and sketching ideas on how to make this farm.

Day 1
We met the team and got told the brief for the farm: We would be utilising waste products (in this case local used coffee grounds) to grow mushrooms from it – we would put the seed in the grounds, water it, keep it under minimal ventilation until the grounds grew mould. Then the bottles would be opened, and the changing atmosphere of air would spurt quick growth of edible fungus. These bottles would be displayed on a farm we would design and build from recycled tesco crates.

Final day exhibition demonstrating some of the principles of the 'blue economy'. We had utilized waste products like used pallets from construction sites, recycled containers from home, and used coffee grounds from the local cafe, to design and build an urban mushroom farm.

The fully operational mushroom farm on a sunny day.

The vessels accommodating the growing mushrooms are secured to the built intervention with thread.

Presentation stand construction completed. It has been designed and built to house a laptop, which will screen the video of the entire project, and to frame the mushroom farm intervention from a defined angle.

A rooftop polytunnel for growing leaf crops and a forest garden using the techniques of a woodland ecosystem are some of the ways the Biospheric Foundation are able to replicate the conditions of distant ecosystems in an urban environment.

2 of the food production systems at the Biospheric Foundation. A vertical leaf crop farming system and indoor mushroom growing.

Planting mushroom spawn by mixing it in with the used coffee grounds in a re-used plastic jar.

Day 7: (Exhibition)
On the Final Day, we held a exhibition on the ground floor of Chatham (Courtyard), it was some what was a successful exhibition.

Day 6-
We finally hung the plastic bottles on the frame, ready for the exhibition.

Day 5-
We started designing information posters about our MushFarm.

Final presentation of urban growing intervention and information stand

Bottle with mushroom planted inside hung from the intervention

Information stand built and complete

Building the stand that will be used on the final day to act as an information point

Day 6
The mushroom bottles were cut and hung from the structure and the presentation sheets were displayed.

Final Dayy

Final Day# Information post

Final Day# Double-function installation (Mushfarm and seating space)

Final Day # Hanging mushrooms, MushFarm

Final day and our intervention is a success!!!

DAY8

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Today was the final day for the mush farm event.
We cut open the bottles and hang them on the structure.
We also prepared a film and posters to show for the people who comes to the courtyard.
Mushrooms were not fully grown but it shows the process of the growth.

Final Day

Wrapping up with a group photo. It's been a pleasure!

we cut open the bottles of mushrooms and then displayed them by hanging them from the frame. Unfortunately mine hadn't grown!

Final Day!

The information post as we enter our exhibition.

another part of our farm where the laptop sits to play our time-lapse of the event

Final Day!

The outcome of the mushrooms that we have planted earlier being part of the intervention

Chilling on our mushroom farm!

Final Day!

Start of the day: setting up the mushrooms, etcetera for exhibition

Presentation sheets printed out and pinned up explaining our project

This was a structure built to support the video projection our timeline of our event.

Day 7: Group photo! We nailed it👍✨

Today we started hanging out mushrooms on our structure in the courtyard ready for display.

Day 7: the bottles are up!

Day 4.4
We started to plant our mushrooms on this day by filling our bottles or any other containers with coffee waste.

Day 5
Before building the arch we made two pieces to fit arouynd the tree. The reason we form our arch like that was due to leonardo Da Vinci arch form, he devised a method for creating a self supported arched bridge that doesn't require anything to hold together,

Day 6: final touch up for the installation

structure to support film of process

To journey in the context of landscape is to reconnect to a deeper part of ourselves, to not be connected with others and their ideas, but share a deeper sense of ‘quale’ that architecture negates in its need to secure, commodify and make accessible. The landscape, desert and forest somehow enhance, magnify and distort the human condition, its very complexity echoing our inner life. John Fowles, in The Tree (1979), likens the forest to our brains, a sort of extended mind where we can hide from the linear thinking of cities and reconnect to our Green Man within: he suggests cities should be more like forests.3 I suggest that architects rediscover the psychological and spiritual benefits of forests, mountains, caves, lagoons, beaches and dells in our attempts at urban planning and architecture.

Louis Kahn called such essential places the conceptual ‘laws’, upon which the architect could then set about ‘designing’, without which, he argued, the rules of design were wasted.4 How often have you seen ‘designed’ architecture and not made any connection with the space? Yet the urge to comprehend and connect with the landscape or use it as a backdrop has possessed Western culture for centuries. Our architecture, from the classical piano rustico and Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘land-huggers’, to the ‘sky hooks’ of the Constructivists and skyscrapers of New York, all have elemental references. Perhaps now such natural references could be more intimate and subtle.
Architectural Design, ‘The New Pastoralists’

cantilever
A projecting structure, such as a beam, that is supported at one end and that carries a load at the other end or along its length
any rigid structural member, esp. one projecting from a vertical support, in which the fixed end is in compression and the free end in tension.

Is a 'cantilever' an example of an architectural symbiotic relationship ??

Cymothoa exigua, or the tongue-eating louse, is a parasitic crustacean that enters fish through the gills and then attaches itself at the base of the fish's tongue. It extracts blood from the fish causing the tongue to atrophy from lack of blood. The parasite then replaces the fish's tongue by attaching itself to the muscles of the tongue stub. The fish is able to use the parasite just like a normal tongue. It appears that the parasite does not cause any other damage to the host fish.

lichen! They are a perfect example of symbiosis - a fungus and a green alga living in harmony to produce a dual organism. this is Cladonia pyxidata. It has a scale-like squamulose structure and stalked cups called podetia

Arch complete. Clad in upcycled horizontal pallet strip.

Arch forms made in two pieces to fit around tree

Arch form model with tree

Leonardo Da Vinci arch form.Sometime around 1485-1487, Leonardo DaVinci devised a method for building a self-supporting arched bridge that doesn’t require any ropes or other fasteners. The bridge's own weight keeps it together; the more you stack on it, the more stable it gets. It was originally meant to be a quick bridge for military usage

coffee grains into empty bottes

Filling bottles with coffee grains and sowing with 'mushrooms'

5/.
I read this book as a gateway into theoretical applications of landscape architecture. It speaks of ways to use the land without abusing it, and also how we can create architecture to tread lightly in niche environments. It was a real delight to see how the project can make some interesting and light steps towards some of the book's main concepts. It definitely allowed me to explore some new crossovers in both Architecture and landscape architecture, where the two do not have to be separated into fixed categories, and can work as a unit.

6/.
This was another design we created as we had some spare pallets to play around with. It was a sheltered component that would accomodate a laptop, and play a video of the intervention being built. This hut made use of a lot of the spare pallets, and as you can see from the picture above, there was next to nothing waste!

3/.
The material we had to use had now changed to standard wooden pallets, and therefore the design had to be changed. Once we collected the pallets we started drawing, discussing and then arranging the pallets on new forms and shapes, with an array of functionalities.

DAY 7

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We were making poster with information about mushfarm for the event day
Indivisually take each part to make and put them together and it will be printed out tomorrow
Also we cut open the bottles we put mushroom seeds in
Some of them are successful but some of them failed
But all will be presented on the event day!

I can smell mushroom 😁 lets wait for few days more!

Day 3 # Carrying pallets from the construction sites around Chatham building.

Day 3 #Biospheric Foundation tour

Some of the mushrooms are growing well ...

Our intervention DONE !

Great to see that the structure is still standing despite the weather... Although some mushrooms do not appear to be growing!