Growing architecture is an innovative approach that integrates living plants into architectural designs, addressing ecological issues such as climate change adaptation and promoting sustainable living environments. This concept challenges traditional design methodologies by incorporating elements like growth, decay, chance, and probability into the creation of resilient and beautiful structures.

This episode's guest is Ferdinand Ludwig, a Professor of Green Technologies in Landscape Architecture and the Director of the Research Group Baubotanik at the Technical University of Munich. He co-founded OLA – Office for Living Architecture in Stuttgart, Germany, and is the author of the book “Growing Architecture – How to Design and Build with Trees.”

In our conversation, we explore the following questions:

• What inspired the concept of Baubotanik, and what challenges arise when designing with nature?
• How can we adopt a mindset that looks beyond our own lifetimes when planning and building structures?
• What are the three approaches to time in the context of living architecture?
• How can we understand cities as living systems and the concept of inhabitable forests?

Tune in to this episode to discover how Ferdinand Ludwig's groundbreaking work is reshaping our understanding of architecture and encouraging us to design with nature, time, and the unknown in mind.

Locations of the experiments mentioned on the episode: Plane Tree Cube Baubotanik Tower, Baubotanik Footbridge, Arbor Kitchen

Growing Architecture book

For show notes & links visit TNM official website