In The Realm of the Mushroom
Year: 2020
Site: Govalle, Austin, Texas
Featured in the 2020 Design Excellence Conference and AIA Austin’s Force Majeure post-pandemic design competition, this project re-frames the provided architectural brief by anticipating rather than building. Located in the working class neighborhood of Govalle, the greenfield site is transformed into an urban park for civic propagation and discovery, drawing from the properties of fungi to imagine multiple interconnected urban ecologies.
In the Realm of the Mushroom features a series of temporary mycelium pavilions within an urban park, acting as placeholders for needed development. The proposed programs to serve the surrounding neighborhood include public amenities, vocational training, and affordable childcare. This project encourages decentralized, regenerative and resilient systems, providing nodes of urban farming, energy production, and water harvesting.
As the mycelium pavilions decay, the infrastructure will take the place of the rhizome, supporting self sustaining models that cultivate urban life. The resulting order becomes less like an operating system and more like a biological one.
The fruiting chamber in Building II is an educational space that emphasizes urban farming and compost recycling. Receiving biodegradable materials from an on-site café and neighboring commercial mall, the fruiting chamber is both processing area and classroom for East Austin residents to learn about sustainability and cultivation.
The extensive community garden facilitates food production and supplies the urban farmer's market with locally grown produce. As a central space in the park, the garden features non-invasive plant species to be introduced around the site.