National Theatre Grows Green
by Bonnie Alter, London on 05.11.07
British artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey love grass. A few years ago they grew it all over the floor, ceiling and walls of a deconsecrated church and they have invented a way of using photosynthesis so that they can make faces and images on it. They are even growing it on the wall of their dining room. For their latest creation, they are covering the fly tower of the National Theatre. The fly tower is a very prominent part of this important 1970's building, flying high above its severe concrete monolithic base (see the before). Now here is the after, covered with vivid grass on two sides. It has become "a beacon of green" in the area; it almost looks like a blanket or, dare we say it--astro-turf! The artists say it is "a reminder of rolling fields in the midst of the city." Working with a crew of twenty, the artists hauled two and a half tons of clay up 10 storeys of scaffolding and smeared it across the concrete to a thickness of four or five millimetres. Then they had to push the seedlings into the damp clay. Gradually the green grass will grow longer, as it is watered by rain and gardeners, and ultimately it will yellow and die. This is a comment on growth, decay and global warming. Calling their work "perverse horticulture", the artists are very concerned with the environment and their art shows it. They were part of the Natural History Museum's exhibition of climate change in the Arctic--their piece was a whale's skeleton which they froze and then covered with crystals. Future projects include designing a wind turbine and a carbon neutral house. :: National Theatre
I'm a Permaculture designer/consultant and much concern with sustainability,and though I find what you are doing beautiful and striking,and those things which you are trying to convey about the environment just as great; I do wish that you would go even steps futher, and think about making your creations sustainable and as well regenerative! "Regenerative" in that your projects does not have to die",for you could have used various seeds of edible grasses,vegetables,grains,etc and created many other win wins about your project,which would leave certainly a greater impact for humanity,and as well food/foder for the community.
Peace...............Gaiamon
Sorry, but this is one area in which the relevant Old Way is light years ahead of the inefficient, if not downright silly attempt to put plants evolved to colonize plains and meadows on vertical surfaces. Humans already spent generations breeding exquisitely adapted deciduous vines, like parthenocissus henryana, which do a spectacular job of "clothing" walls, as gardeners of yore called this task.
That egomaniac Wright damned vines by snidely assigning their use as a sign of poor design. Thereafter, architects with aspirations to modernity fell into sheeplike submission to his ignorant jibe.
Luckily, those unspoiled by the study of academic Western architecture have been rediscovering this nearly lost but wonderful agri/cultural heritage. A Chinese paper documenting the heating and cooling benefits of vines to a building can be found on the web, as can a Scandinavian study debunking the myth that vines degrade otherwise sound masonry.
Look around and you'll see many examples of people embracing the heritage technology of vines, absent any institutional promotion. Ask and you'll find out that they are doing it because it works and it is beautiful!
This is one case in which the classicists were right and the modernists wrong!
It is correct to call Harvey and Ackroyd artists. What they've made is beautiful as conceptual art, but as building technology it is about as useful as a steel baseball cap. Fun to look at, but give me the wool or hemp version to wear, please. Tae Old Ways!