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Event, 2022

Dinacon, the Fighouse

A bamboo structure testing banyan and fig as a building material, with a sensor pod that turned leaves into sound.

When
15 July 2022
Where
Batticaloa
Format
Research installation
With
Digital Naturalism Labs

During Dinacon 2022, Felix Klee built the Fighouse, a project testing fig trees as a living building material. Fig cuttings planted on a frame send down roots over it. Once the roots reach the ground the trees grow stronger each year, and in time they could become a living house. The idea comes from the living root bridges of Meghalaya in India.

The frame was a bamboo tent shaped like a tetrahedron, a pyramid with four triangular faces, with a sensor “data pod” that turned readings from fig leaves into sound. In a workshop at the DreamSpace Bio Lab, participants prepared fig cuttings and seeds gathered from trees in and around DreamSpace Hive.

The photographs are from the Dinacon 2022 website.

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Images

A design sketch of the Fighouse: fig roots growing down over a bamboo frame, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
A small bamboo model of the Fighouse, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
Collecting fig cuttings from a tree, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
Fig cuttings and fruit, with a map of where they came from, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
Fig cuttings in jars of diluted coconut water in the Bio Lab, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
A 3D scan of the fig tree at the Ganesha temple, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
A 3D scan of the fig tree at Singing Fish Park, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
Fruit on a banyan fig tree, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
Banyan leaves near DreamSpace Hive, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
A large banyan tree with aerial roots, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
Cutting bamboo for the frame, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
Lashing the bamboo poles together, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
Raising the bamboo frame, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
Fixing fig cuttings to the frame, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
The finished Fighouse frame standing in the field, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.
Fitting the sensor pod to the frame, July 2022. Photo: Dinacon 2022.

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