Terrena Growth Experiments and Prototypes

Though the [R]ed[U]x Lab has been recovering from the excitement of the Lithoform and Flux projects in the month of February, the teams cannot forget their other roster of projects including the upcoming Terrena piece exhibited at the Gladstone Hotel's Grow Op 2016.

The Terrena Team has been busy experimenting with geo-, hydro-, and phototropism to find the optimal methods of growing the vegetation while ensuring the roots create the desired effect. At the same time, the team is wrestling with fabricating ways to effectively"float" the terrain off the floor for visitors to view this intricate proposal from all sides.

 

[R]ed[U]x Lab Returns to Grop-Op with Terrena

Though the winter of the New Year puts the planting of the spring far from our minds, this April the [R]ed[U]x Lab will once again return to the Gladstone Hotel to exhibit Terrena at the 2016 Grow Op event. Always experimenting with new media and unconventional ideas, Terrena proposes an installation that hovers in the middle of a room whereby users can see the often hidden (but nonetheless intricate) network of roots from below. If it were easy, it would not be worth doing.

In the words of the team:

"The project will be installed as a part of the 2016 Gladstone Hotel GrowOp exhibition that celebrates landscape, gardens, art, and placemaking. Terrena’s surface is a manmade landscape made of modular plants that takes precedent from the topography of the historical Toronto Ravines. Our installation, Terrena, creates a unique experience for visitors through procession, as the installation will be placed above, underneath and at eyelevel to the visitor as they process. In addition, the installation reveals the underside of the plants, exposing the root systems to the visitors. Visitors can physically and visually experience the underlying system that allows nature to prevail over and through manmade landscapes. The installation celebrates the rootal systems that are usually unseen. 

The project will give insight to visitors about the complexity of the root system as well as the persistence and prevalence of nature over our manmade landscapes. The overgrowth and overarching of the plants over the infrastructure will exemplify the idea that nature cannot be controlled despite our efforts. The venue is the alcove/lobby space of the 2nd floor at the Gladstone Hotel. The installation will consist of modular pieces put together to create a whole. The installation will be selfsupporting with light supporting elements to appear as if it is floating."

Design and Production Commences on Grow Op 2014

Despite the opening of the Grow Op 2014 show coinciding with the frenetic and stressful end of term at Ryerson University's Department of Architectural Science, members of the [R]ed[U]x Lab are always up for a challenge. After all, what better way to relieve studio stress than breathing in laser cutter fumes or manual labor? Of course pizza tends to make manual labor worthwhile...

In addition to the laser cut acrylic infrastructure, the group has also been preparing clippings of aggressive ivy to integrate into the design. Unfortunately the initial idea of using spider plants, Chlorophytum, had to change given the physiology and desired tropism behaviours for this project.

[R]ed[U]x Lab at Grow Op 2014

Once again the [R]ed[U]x Lab returns to the Gladstone Hotel for another installation opportunity, Grow Op 2014 with their project entitled "Chlorophytum". Though the initial Come Up To My Room project in 2012 stands as one of the group's prominent and early projects (merely two years ago!), the current roster of the [R]ed[U]x Lab endeavors to push themselves even further in this piece. 

The original intention was presented as:

"Hybridizing plant life within a digitally fabricated matrix, the Chlorophytum project explores synthetic methods to augment and showcase physiological processes within plants including capillary action, phototropism, thigmotropism, and diurnal behaviours.  This room installation suspends an acrylic matrix containing a series of nutrient reservoirs which sustain a latticework of modest planting.  By day, the constrained nutrient reservoirs and light from the room’s window will alter the organization of the hovering matrix. During the evening hours within this environment, the plants’ responses to the various stimuli in the room are highlighted via the use of black light. The tessellation of plant and fabricated components atop visitors will prove to be an engaging piece that draws attention the self-organizing systems at play in plant growth, but also questions the nature of interior vegetation as art."

This was a very conceptual proposal and allowed the [R]ed[U]x Lab to investigate the use of not only plant life but also UV light and motors... at least that is the intention. As one can see, the design evolved over time...