The Power of the Thigmotropic Landscape

How can Thigmotropism be utilised as a design tool in order to cast plants as creating the form rather than merely as a decorative afterthought?

Thigmotropism is the directional response of a plant organ to touch or physical contact with a solid object. This biological response can be used to create unique structures and forms in the landscape.

In today’s landscape architectural discipline plants are frequently added to a design after the majority of the design’s form has been created using hard-scape materials. When used in this way, plants often serve as little more than ornamentation and decoration. Such an approach limits the potential for creativity in landscape architecture by ignoring design qualities inherent in many plants. One such characteristic of some plants is Thigmotropism.

There are several values in integrating Thigmotropism into the landscape architectural process. One is that plants can be used as a tool to create structural and spatial outcomes, as occurred is R&Sie’s ‘Spidernethewood’ project where plants are left to grow over a constructed framework. This created a landscape without hard lines or ready visibility of man-made materials; a landscape crafted from foliage itself.

Thigmotropism also adds an element of dynamism to a landscape. Form and structure of plants change with time and hence so does the physical landscape and with it, the public’s experience of the space. Such a design is dynamic and constantly evolving, as was explored by the fictional editorial based around ‘Spidernethewood’ entitled ‘A Report from Bruce Sterling / 2030’.

Thigmotropism can be used to push the boundaries of creativity in design form. Further research is necessary to explore what built structures are most compatible with Thigmotropic plants and what industry standards would need to be developed and implemented to support the use of Thigmotropism as a design tool for creating landscapes.

“Thigmotropism is the directional response of a plant organ to touch or physical contact with a solid object. This directional response is generally caused by the induction of some pattern of differential growth.” - S. Vartanian (1997) Kenyon University Biology Department Document.. Link to Page: http://biology.kenyon.edu/edwards/project/steffan/b45sv.htm

“Thirty long years had overpassed our rolling globe since the unveiling of Roche's legendary web-house. The inspector and I almost missed the place, which was, of course, the architect's original intention. I stroked the cracked screen of my vintage iPhone. "The GPS coordinates of this structure seem to have been deliberately mis-allocated." "Typical," sniffed the inspector…” - Bruce Sterling (2007) Full Text: http://www.new-territories.com/spidernet2.htm

Image Credit: R&Sie Website, http://www.new-territories.com/spider%202bis2.htm