Revolving mushroom Farm

Computational Design (MAA 2019-2020) : Genetic Optimization

Faculty: Rodrigo Aguirre

Student Team: Mauricio Casia, Sumit Nemmaniwar, Sneha Vivek

The Revolving Mushroom farms is a project that  aims to provide a source of food that can be grown in public spaces in areas that are too cold and dark to grow regular crops. The project  takes advantage of genetic optimization algorithms to find the best location for the structures in order to displace them within various plazas and courtards in order to find the best location based on the mushroom’s needs.

The farms are designed as tri lobed funicular structures with varying heights. the underside of these structures is lined with panels of mycelium of various species of edible mushrooms.  For the mushrooms to fruit they need to have a reduced solar exposure wich was achieved through a solar analysis that was run in the city.  Using Galapagos, we identifies the best possible locations for these structures that put them in the darkest areas available.

A secondary algorithm was designed to rotate the structures, allowing their lobes to interlock at various points in order to further reduce the solar exposure wherever needed.