Since the first site visit, I’m inspired by the cracks on the ground - varying shapes, width, depth. Whenever a crack emerges, people fill the cracking region with asphalt mixture. Since thei ngredients of the mixture are slightly different every time, the ground looks like a giant fabric where patches of materials are weaved together. In the periphery areas where the cracks are ignored by people, plants take over. Weeds, moss, and shrubs occupy the cracks. Patches of green emerge where cracks happen.
In my design scheme, I choose to leave thecrevice cracking and let nature take over the site. Minimal intervention isexerted to enable the harmonious coexistence of people and nature. I imaginethe largest, deepest cracks tol become creeks sprawling into all corners of thesite, collecting rainwater. At the intersection of the creeks, water pondsemerge, following the shape of the cracks. Next to the water ponds, underground mushroom cultivation sites pop up, amplifying and mirroring the shapes of thewater ponds. Water drips down from above ground to the underground, providing humidity for the mushrooms. Next to the largest water pond on the site, the largest mushroom cultivation site has a bowl-shaped gathering region forconversation, workshops, and making mycelium bricks, and an underground space mirroring the shape, for cultivating mushrooms. Mycelium bricks, built with soil excavated from the site, are used to construct all the existing structures on the site - like the staircases and benches. Mushroom detoxifies the soil andfosters plant growth.
From the ground level, this place will be a serendipity, a breath of life, a crack in the urban fabrics, where greenness emerges from the surrounding dense buildings. It’s a place for urban dwellers to hug the trees, to lie on the grass, to smell the mushrooms, to relax andi nteract with nature. In plan, the sprawling cracks make the entire site look like a giant mycelium brick. They are the vessels of the Earth, the breath of the soil.
