We were asked by Geneva Town of New York Boroughs to come up with a shading design for their newly developed public area so the inspiration came during my travel early this year to Sri Lanka i came across a unique holy tree : The Bodhi Tree. I was completely captivated by its beauty and the inherent shading geometry of this living being! It clasp onto the only large rock formation in this area of predominantely rolling grass hills and tea farms. Nature is the perfect designer and i wanted to learn and inspire from such perfection in symbiosis. My wife sits within this tree and started to meditate. I notice that as humans, we have progressively grown more distant to nature. With all our material gains and manipulation of the natural environment, we started to forget the simplicity of life and being part of our ecosystem. I begin to contemplate a new design philosophy of growing architecture and working with nature. In most contemporary designs, although mimicking biological formations, We seems to quest for our design to be Pure and New, Untouched by natural erosion or organic infestation. We wanted to propose a design that changes with time, a design that grows in harmony with nature, a form that evolves with its surrounding community, and lastly ZERO MAINTENANCE!!
Made mostly out of recycled PVC pipes with a steel substructure it promotes foliage growth that will increase the shading efficiency as time passes. It also uses the rooting system of plants to increase its structural stability as it is a design that evolves with its community and the seasons. While most architectural projects uses plants as an afterthought to decorate, GASA is designed as a platform to promote plant growth in order to function as social community gathering hub. The only maintenance it needs is for nature to take its course as it will be the first generation of environmental design that will grow with the environment. It is time we have to work with nature and co-exist as one in order to preserve our planet as we are all just guests on this earth which have existed and will continue to exist even when the human race has been long gone.