Plantware: New Meaning to Urban Jungle
by Karin Kloosterman, Tel Aviv 
on 03.14.08
Imagine a bus shelter that grows extra-long roots for you to sit on and leafy greens as shade. Or a living playground made from trees?
These are the fantasies of Plantware, a company that aspires to make fixtures in the urban landscape from living, growing trees.
Plantware's approach in is known as tree shaping, arborsculpture, living art or pooktre. One famous pioneer in this area is Axel Erlandson from California who started shaping trees in 1925, and by the late 1940's opened up "The Tree Circus," a tourist attraction which has now been transplanted to an amusement park in Gilroy, California.
Here's a pic of Axel:
Says Plantware's CEO Gorden Glaze about his inspiration, "A fantasy about building houses from living trees, inspired by the ficus tree, whose roots create amazing forms. We discovered a way to control the direction in which a tree grows, which can be used to grow structures that will be useful and environmentally-friendly."
After consulting a root specialist and about $250,000 in investment Plantware is building prototypes in Australia, the US and Israel, where the company is headquartered. Some 10 employees form the company (since 2001); they are specialists biotech, art and industrial design. We can't wait to climb on one of their products.
TreeHugger related ::Urban Tree Salvage ::Transforming Concrete Jungles Into Urban Orchards
::Plantware
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This sounds an amazing idea. I love the idea of a 'fantasyland' theme to make the mundane special.
By using tree as building components not only would it bring people closer to nature, and thereby encourage and appreciation of it, but it would provide more natural habit for wildlife in our towns and cities. An excellent idea.
However, I am a little concerned as to the impact upon the tree. Okay, plants don't squeal if you step on them by accident the way your pet dog does, but they so get stressed if their optimum living conditions aren't met. How manipulating their growing patterns would affect them I have no idea as I'm not a botanist.
I do hope this is an area that has been considered and that using trees in this manner would cause no such problems. A fantasy landscape in our towns - excellent.
Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog www.lionsledbysheep.com
and 'What if...?', an eco-suspense thriller with a philosophical twist.
This is a great idea, but have two concerns:
1) In urban areas, dog/people pee, beer, pop (soda), oils, etc. all get spilled. Add to that the pollution and you have a good chance of killing the trees. So now you have a dead tree for a bus stop.
2) Maintenance- I assume these require a fair amount of maintenance in order to allow them to continue to grow the way we want/expect. Traditional structures require less maintenance.
WOW what an amazing, artistic medium getting people back in "TOUCH" with nature and the louts wont be able to steal the seats either. Good Luck for the future.