Crown Shyness

Columbia GSAPP Adv IV

Spring 2020
Studio Critic: Lindsey Wikstrom

In collaboration with Angela Sun

Crown Shyness is a naturally adaptive phenomenon where crowns of trees do not touch each other, forming an optimized canopy with little gaps. It’s a reactive and polite mechanism, integrated into the tree’s biology and movement. It’s a cohesive way of living, independently and, yet connected.

Our Living Lab is a proposal of that exact livelihood, where the boundary between forest and building exist with a shyness that is never invasive, and goes beyond co-existing to actually forming a resilience together, by sharing knowledge. This project explores the concept  of knowledge sharing in three dimensions: between forest and non-forest, humans and machines,  and home and work. 

In 50 years when the cycle of replanting trees begins anew, the Living Lab will have grown to be self-sustaining and self-educating. The people and bots who live and work here will have a wealth of collected knowledge on sustainable forestry, timber engineering, and automation.