Ferdinand Ludwig on the need for architects to think like gardeners

Prof Dr Ferdinand Ludwig advocates the need for architects to think and practice like gardeners, as he emphasises bringing the same sensitivity, love and care that one brings to tending plants in realising habitats that serve in the co-evolution of humans and nature beyond our lifetime. Founder of Stuttgart-based Office for Living Architecture, Ludwig’s research-centric practice combines the building world and the growing world of trees into one piece of living architecture. Baubotanik, a discipline that he established at the Institute of Architectural Theory and Design (IGMA) at the University of Stuttgart in 2007, his work has only grown manifolds and has given shape to many incredible spaces where plants played a central role. Speaking with STIR at the FAB Conclave 2024 in Mumbai, the German architect unpacks key differences that distinguish a technically constructed building from the one built by Baubotanik. He also outlines the parameters that contribute to developing a plant-technical composite structure and discusses why he emphasises on the need for vertical densification.

"For me, gardeners at their best are very wise people because they go beyond sustainability. They try to leave a place better than they have inherited it, and that's why they are planting, growing and starting processes that will last longer than they live,” Ludwig tells STIR. "As architects, we need to adapt to this way of thinking in design, that it is not something to create less damage to the planet, but creating a better place and also being responsible for an involvement and evolution.”

Research being key to his practice allows him to discern the growth of trees, to combine it with non-living elements. Bending and breaking tests help analyse tree connections and the exploration of the aspects of growth and decay. Structures are composed of individual plants that are combined to form a larger entity through which technical elements make their way to give shape to the resultant architecture and landscape. An essential distinguishing feature between a regular structure and the one built through Baubotanik, Ludwig says is that “the building itself is alive; it’s ever-changing and has no finite state. It is something that we also need to take care of, to water, to prune, and that is adapting and interchanging with the environment.”

In developing a plant-technical composite structure, a lot depends on plant growth and care. STIR asks him how he balances these parameters in a fast-paced industry such as architecture. “Industrial components,” he explains, “are delivered on point. They are produced very fast and you can also multiply and create more of them. A plant is there, grown or not. You cannot just mimic the time and you have to have certain patience with it. However, we try to develop techniques which, we call the plant addition technique, where we merge a lot of young trees into one hyper organism and by this, create a huge green space very quickly and in the long run, become as resilient and as strong as a naturally grown tree.”

Key projects by his practice include the Arbor Kitchen as a space for artists to exhibit works that engage with nature; the three-storied Baubotanik Tower as an experimental building composed of several hundred White Willow trees; the open-to-sky six-level Plane Tree Cube featuring green walls made of London plane trees arranged in planters; and the Baubotanik Footbridge as a green bearing structure created from sets of willow Salix viminalis — a species with a high ability to regenerate and take root.

Producing work that is as disruptive as it is humbling and rooted in its place, when asked what disruption in design means to him, Ludwig shares that it is necessary because "of the old solutions, the upcoming solutions, and the established solutions that have seemingly created the ecological issues we are currently confronted with.”

Watch the full interview by clicking on the lead banner.