They take root, turn green, have utility functions, look great, are completely natural, they have been decorating parks and gardens of our western neighbors for 30 years, and now they are slowly entering Poland. Live willow constructions - because we are talking about them - are becoming an increasingly popular element of the native small garden architecture.Due to the fact that they turn green in the first season,such a solution is often chosen by people who are just starting a garden. Thanks to living structures, they have a large green object in a completely new space.
The whole strength of living architecture lies in the building material. In this case, it is Salix viminalis, or energy willow, one of the many varieties of this valuable plant. This particular species, due to its properties, offers a lot of possibilities. The stems of this plant are extremely flexible and durable at the same time.They reach a height of up to 8 meters, are resilient and grown on plantations intended for such purposes.In Poland, live objects have only been planted for several years, while in the world is a tradition dating back to the 70s of the last century.
Contrary to appearances, willow constructions are very durable. Just look at the Auerworldpalace, which has been planted in Auerstadt, a district of Bad Sulza in eastern Germany since 1998, or the gigantic willow cathedral planted in 2001 in Rostock.Their examples show that the durability of a living architecture is counted in dozens of years.
Living willow is used to build gazebos, pavilions, tunnels, sandboxes, and entire playgrounds.The variety of shapes and applications is very large. Both circle and square based objects are planted. The size also offers a lot of room for maneuver.Limitations related to the natural dimensions of plants are overcome by creating elongated bundlesYou can make large, solid structures with strong pillars composed of a few or a dozen willow shoots, but you can also make lighter, more openwork objects.
There are also many different possibilities within them, because they can be intricately, very regularly interwoven, and they can also be created in the bird weaving technique, which gives a lot of freedom and space for your own interpretation.Willow cuts on a special plantation, then, depending on the technique we will work, it is formed into bundles or individual shoots and planted in previously dug holes.Then the object is bound in a special way and this is how the building is created.Planting willow structures requires some manual skills. Knowledge in the field of sailing will also be useful, because the durability of objects is very much influenced by bindings.
Hans Peter Sturm is considered the father of living architecture.This German weaver, looking for new uses for his skills, began to wonder what would happen when the basket was enlarged to a very large size, turned over, replaced with wicker material and planted.In later years Peter joined his forces with the outstanding Swiss architect Marcel Kalberer and it can be said that the most interesting living objects in the world are the result of this cooperation.
Self-construction of living objects is not difficult, but definitely time-consuming and labor-intensive.However, large span structures require a lot of knowledge, a large team of people with considerable physical strength and time (a minimum of a few days intensive work, and if we do not have knowledge about plantations and do not have the appropriate equipment, the time is significantly longer).That is why specialized companies have appeared on the market that can help us with this. They design, plant and, if necessary, also cultivate.
We build only he althy withes
In the case of living objects, the following are important: the date of cutting the willow, its condition, how deep it will be dug in, how often it will be watered.The energy willow is not a particularly demanding plant, but if we want to make it a completely new facility that will serve us for years, we must not forget about the details.
There are many willow plantations in Poland, unfortunately many old and neglected. Let us not obtain material for construction from them, because the constructed object will never come to life, and after a few seasons it will have to be dismantled, because it will threaten our safety.Therefore, it is very important in the entire construction process that willow twigs are he althy and tidy.
Systematic pruning of the plant in the first years after planting is also very important, and later fresh shoots can be braided to create slightly different structures. In span structures, it will also not hurt to check the bindings from time to time, preferably every two or three years.If we are sure that they were well made at the beginning, nothing should happen to them.
