Celestial Vaults - Kunsthalle Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland / 2024
With Eric Gozzi
Celestial Vaults explores the potential of bio-based materials in architecture, focusing on mycelium as a material for architectural applications. Mycelium, a fast-growing fungal network, presents unique design challenges related to durability, material performance, production requirements, and public acceptance. Rather than perceiving these challenges as limitations, the project embraces them as opportunities to rethink the relationship between structural and ornamental elements in architecture.
By emphasizing degradability and a short lifespan as design qualities rather than flaws, Unterdecken-BIO challenges conventional ideas of permanence and longevity in building materials. This approach redefines concepts like maintenance, order, and durability, shifting focus towards managing natural cycles of time, decay, and regeneration.
Through 1:20 scale living mock-ups and an experimental farming setup installed at the Kunsthalle, the project investigates how mycelium surfaces can be integrated into architectural frames. It explores hybrid material approaches where primary structural elements are intentionally distinct from secondary ornamental membranes composed of mycelium-based components. This innovative separation of systems has the potential to dissolve conventional structural boundaries, generating new ornamental surfaces inspired by natural processes.
Drawing inspiration from Baroque churches, a key design focus is the meeting points where ceilings and columns merge, blurring the boundaries between structure and ornament—touchpoints within three-dimensional space.
The project’s experimental lab work was conducted in the BFL – Bio-Fabrication Laboratory of the Digital Building Technologies (dbt) group at ETH Zurich, located in HIB-Hönggerberg.
