Ecotone adaptive dwelling in Ontario: learning from plants

Abstract

Plants are resilient and beautiful. They can teach us how to live harmoniously with our surrounding ecosystem and with nature. Plants have developed strategies that allow them to adapt to the everchanging environmental conditions. Unlike buildings, they are dynamic and rely on mutualistic relationships with the land and other living beings. This thesis looks at the theory of biomimicry and focuses on adaptive architecture, exploring the design principles and analyzing the criticism of both approaches in order to learn how we can design a 'living' adaptive dwelling space that creates a dynamic architectural ecosystem where the users are 'symbiotic' participants, actively adapting to changing environmental conditions using hands-on, low-tech solutions. The proposed adaptive dwelling, located in an ecotone region in Eastern Ontario, lives in harmony with the natural cycles and challenges the current ideals of comfort on a natural site.