Foreground for Mosses: Designing 3D Printed Clay Bryobricks to Enhance the Built Environment
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Date
2021-06-13
Authors
Tietz, Heather
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Abstract
This project explores the potential between the
ecological services of mosses and designed ceramic
substrate for creating ecologically enhanced
landscapes. Communities and environments are
negatively affected by areas with impervious
surfaces and pollution. The efficacy of new
typologies in landscape architecture, such as
living walls, could be improved with mosses’
ecological benefits and resilience. Clay is an
abundant resource that can be reshaped utilizing
3D printing and support the propagation of
mosses. This research-through-design approach
interrogates the potential growth of mosses visa-
vis experiments in 3D clay printing to create
optimal substrates. The experimental design was
installed in four locations testing four unique
substrates against moss growth.
For the three-month duration of the experiment,
monitoring through rephotography, a hygrometer,
and written observations tracked responses to
environmental conditions. Experimental results
informed a framework designing with mosses
and a rapid prototyping process using an
advanced 3D clay printer to develop a modular
screen system. For the final design phase, the
forms were simplified and contextualized at
Lawrence Hall at the University of Oregon as a
speculative case study. Experiments that received
more irrigation and less solar exposure exhibited
more moss growth. This research, experiment,
and subsequent design work serve as a proof of
concept for designing with mosses and clay using
emerging technology for creating
performative landscapes.
Description
317 pages. Committee chair: David Buckley Borden
Keywords
Moss, Bryophyte, Clay, Ceramic, 3D Print, Prototype, Research-through-Design, Bioreceptive, Biodesign