REX|LAB, 2019
A 3D printed installation within the ‘Show Garden’ silver medal winner GARDENING WILL SAVE THE WORLD – IKEA & TOM DIXON pavilion* at the 2019 RHS Royal Chelsea Flower Show
Design: Marjan Colletti, Tiziano Derme
Soil 3D printing: MAEID
Collaborators: Moritz Riedl (UIBK), Lukas Vorreiter (UIBK)
Cooperation partners: Daniela Mitterberger/MAEID (soil printing research); Tyroler Glückspilze GmbH (fungi research); BMade at The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL (robotic arm); REX|LAB at Innsbruck University (facilities)
Fabrication: REX|LAB Exp.Arch. Innsbruck
Supported by: The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL; Innsbruck University; Tom Dixon Design Research Studio
Special thanks to:
Josephine de Guzman and Toni Pavic at Tom Dixon Design Research Studio; Mark Stuettler, Manuel Stuettler and Michael Schneider at Tyroler Glueckspilze; Marielena Papendriou, Niamh Grace and Peter Scully at BMade, The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL; Gabriela Seifert and Ernest Hager at Innsbruck University; Fiona Silk, Rossana Porta during installation; MAEID
Photography: Paul Smoothy
‘Terrestrial Reef’ is a large, biodegradable 3D print hybridizing natural and synthetic elements such as soil, agar, Reishi mushrooms and robots. Conceived as a fictional 21st century techno-organic garden, it reflects on the often troubled, incompatible, even oppressive binary relationship of the built environment with the natural environment. Terrestrial Reef depicts nature as complex multi-domain ecology, challenging the common cultural association of gardens and parks as mere greenery. It examines the implications and opportunities in decision-making in a scenario where landscapes would be designed and shaped by artificial intelligence and robots. What aesthetic paradigms would learning machines develop for a hybrid ecosystem of natural and artificial symbionts?
Terrestrial Reef is the second instalment of the conceptual anti-garden framework of Pahoehoe Beauty, developed for the 2018 Ars Electronica Festival in Linz.
