Lichen as bioindicators
Lichen Vs Carbon. These concept models look to document both the current state of Dudley Highstreet and the vision looking towards the future within this thesis project.
The lichen covered model looks towards a future in Dudley that is rich in texture, colour, nature and oxygen. Natural materials promote natural growth, and textures such as rough sawn timber and stone are the prefect hosts for lichen. All new buildings in Dudley would benefit massively from following a fabric first approach and adopt the use of sustainable and recycled building materials along with systems that use minimal energy.
The lichen model represents a vision for this thesis, buildings that are covered in natural materials and lichens that help sequester carbon and promote a healthier Highstreet. Suggestions of raised buildings also proposes less disruption to the ground and natural landscape, giving plants and animals the opportunity to thrive in an otherwise hostile concrete environment. Raised buildings also look towards a future planet with rising sea levels, future factors that will drastically affect the way we carry out daily lives and futureproofing all buildings for generations to come.
This second model uses the Shou Sugi Ban method of charring timber to waterproof it. In this case however it represents the embodied carbon and pollution within the highstreet as it exists now. The simplicity and repetition is also used to symbolise the plain nature of the highstreet with only a few materials exhibited, mainly brick & concrete. Once burnt the timber forms were brushed with wire wool to reveal the natural grain of the wood, a visual representation of degradation of layers of buildings that are built poorly or not constructed to last longer than a generation.
