los angeles CALIFORNIA
suckerPUNCH: describe your project.
karsten t. HUITFELDT: Meant as a somewhat ironic reaction to the green building crusade, this project for a self-sufficient veterinary hospital on the roof of the Los Angeles public library is exploring the formal possibilities of a building powered by live animals. As an interface between nature and technology, the building acts as a bizarre technological/biological device that adopts the habits and functions of the animal it connects with as a means to create energy. Integrating structural elements, mechanical elements, electronics and parts of biological organisms, the building becomes an extension of the animal body. Blood, nerves and muscles are supplying the building with energy, distributing it through artificial, reproduced, alive or grown muscles, veins, nerves and organs.
