Project Information
Name of the project: The Living Room
Architects: The Bittertang Farm
Location: Chicago
Year (project/construction): 2021
Client: The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB)
Construction Company: Work done by The Bittertang Farm
Consultants: Thorton Tomasetti
Photography: Travis Roozee
‘The Living Room’ is located within the CCA’s Permapark, a self-sufficient permaculture park. Inspired by how permaculture reorganized thoughts of farming, The Bittertang Farm reorganizes how architectural materials, forms, and spaces are considered. ‘The Living Room’ provides space for humans and nature to comfortably intermingle in a thriving cultural ecosystem that evolves, transforms, and promotes collective growth. The project suggests a gentle approach to the constructed world where architecture creates a habitat for life and is grown, tended, loved, maintained, harvested, and composted.
Slipping between permaculture and architecture The Living Room explores what it means to create an architecture that is living but also references the casual and conversational spaces of domestic living rooms to create a space of cohabitation. Its perimeter is a fluctuating boundary defined seasonally by plant life and solid and porous elements that feel more like a clearing in the woods than a walled-in space. The columns allow for birds to nest or perch, and the various types of hardwood allow for moss, lichens, and mushrooms to inhabit its creases and cracks. The ground is defined by patterned stonework, the space’s rug, on which various seating types are arranged which at a smaller scale start to create their microenvironments. Each element of the project is an entity in itself, with its qualities and characteristics that work with other elements in the space to contribute to a holistic environment. Working with raw materials that have been crafted by local artisans, including a chainsaw carver and willow weaver the project introduces a handcrafted and sensual sensibility to the urban environment.
‘The Living Room’s’ silhouette and expressive architectural features make it visible from the street but also will create spaces for small-scale community and school events whether that be for conversations or performances throughout the 2021 edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. The CCA uses the park for school activities and as an educational space. As ‘The Living Room’ grows and changes with the seasons it will contribute functionally to the park but can be harvested for biomaterials and give back to the Permapark and the thriving hugelkultur beds.
