Mycofiltration Kamchatka : architectural implementation of an intelligent mycelium mycofiltration system in Kamchatka

• Main Author: Rothmayr, Kilian
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: German
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Umweltkatastrophe; Renaturierung; Architektur; Projekt; Kamchatka; Univ. Prof. Claudia Pasquero; Maria Kuptsova; Synthetic Landscape Lab; Institute of Urban Design; Mycelium; Mycofiltration; Landscape Architecture; Kamtschatka
• Online Access: https://resolver.obvsg.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubi:1-110378

The focus of my thesis is the vision of creating a new typology of architecture which is actively influencing its environment. For this purpose, its core should consist of an intelligent mycelium mycrofiltration system to filter toxins from land with an automatly acting temporary structure that merges into its surroundings over time, leaving an original landscape with a healthy ecosystem. The only main building material that has been researched so far in this regard is probably mushrooms, as they hold to the promise of being a living and yet controllable material that can grow in both diffuse and monolithic forms. In addition, they have been used in the course of mycrofiltration for decades to combat pollutants in environments. At the same time, they are one of the most important livelihoods for ecosystems on earth due to their almost everywhere natural occurrence in the form of mycorrhizal networks. In my research work my main focus is on the problem of military pollution destroying the environment in Kamchatka and how we can save the peninsulas ecosystem from this destruction. In the course of these studies it was necessary to evolve a sort of strategy to detect this special pollution and find a way to eliminate it as far as possible by a semi-artificial structure. This process and its integration into an architectural system is explained step by step in the following thesis. In straight compliance with the architectural and design requirements of such a complex architectural intervention in natural landscape. I will show how this is changing nature and how a new typology of gradients between artificially built and naturally grown components first arises and then falls apart again afterwards. Kilian Rothmayr, BSc. Masterarbeit Universität Innsbruck 2022