A building doesn’t have to be a dry and dead thing. Italian artist Giuliano Mauri’s epic Cattedrale Vegetale (or Tree Cathedral) is the perfect example of architecture that, instead of competing with or complementing nature, is quite literally a part of it. The late artist’s two groves of trees are destined to grow into a pair of magnificent basilicas.
The framework columns seen in these photos will eventually rot away and decay, to be replaced by the hornbeam trees planted in the center of each frame. As these grow, their canopies will mesh together to form the vaulted ceiling of a Gothic cathedral.
Mauri, who passed in 2009, laid the groundwork for his first visionary cathedral in Valsugana, Italy in 2002. The framework of the cathedral at the foot of Mount Arera in the northern Italian region of Lombardy was completed in 2010.
More info: giulianomauri.com (h/t: mymodernmet, BBC)
Image credits: Virtual Sacred Space
Image credits: Michele Salmaso
Image credits: Aldo Fedele (left) | Arte Sella (right)
Image credits: Pava
Image credits: Arte Sella
Image credits: Ettore Galata Rizzardini
Image credits: Pava
Image credits: Giacomo Bianchi
Image credits: Riccardo Senia
Image credits: Pierangelo Zavatarelli
Image credits: Marco Rosato
Image credits: santino
Image credits: Il Giardino Sfumato
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I designed almost identical 2003, but the city of Espoo did not approve it.
I designed almost identical 2003, but the city of Espoo did not approve it.
I loved the way each photo was so different because of changing seasons and different views. What a lovely imaginative and futuristic idea!
I loved the way each of those photos was so different, what with the changing seasons and different views. What a lovely, imaginative idea!
Amazing ! I bet it will look even more gorgeous in a few years. Art should always look that natural.
awesome....But ,just the beginning! see: http://www.templeilluminatus.com/profiles/blogs/recipe-for-saving-rain-forests-and-us
Next step: http://www.templeilluminatus.com/profiles/blogs/recipe-for-saving-rain-forests-and-us
HERE'S THE Next step: http://nostradome.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/hello-world/ htt
HERE'S THE Next step : http://nostradome.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/hello-world/ http://www.templeilluminatus.com/profiles/blogs/recipe-f
Wow, that took a lot of work to make. Great idea if a person had the land.
Absolutely Awesome. Simply Wonderful idea. I wish all prayer houses were made like this.
Why do they don't have "save to your favorite" settings on bored panda?
AMAZING!!! Can't wait to see it when it is completed. I am sure it will be beautiful!
Very beautiful and a great idea, but to call this architecture may be stretching it. Can practical, weatherproof buildings be grown?
Looks pretty stupid to me. Sitting in church and have birds dropping their poop on your head isn't my idea of clever.
I designed almost identical 2003, but the city of Espoo did not approve it.
I designed almost identical 2003, but the city of Espoo did not approve it.
I loved the way each photo was so different because of changing seasons and different views. What a lovely imaginative and futuristic idea!
I loved the way each of those photos was so different, what with the changing seasons and different views. What a lovely, imaginative idea!
Amazing ! I bet it will look even more gorgeous in a few years. Art should always look that natural.
awesome....But ,just the beginning! see: http://www.templeilluminatus.com/profiles/blogs/recipe-for-saving-rain-forests-and-us
Next step: http://www.templeilluminatus.com/profiles/blogs/recipe-for-saving-rain-forests-and-us
HERE'S THE Next step: http://nostradome.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/hello-world/ htt
HERE'S THE Next step : http://nostradome.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/hello-world/ http://www.templeilluminatus.com/profiles/blogs/recipe-f
Wow, that took a lot of work to make. Great idea if a person had the land.
Absolutely Awesome. Simply Wonderful idea. I wish all prayer houses were made like this.
Why do they don't have "save to your favorite" settings on bored panda?
AMAZING!!! Can't wait to see it when it is completed. I am sure it will be beautiful!
Very beautiful and a great idea, but to call this architecture may be stretching it. Can practical, weatherproof buildings be grown?
Looks pretty stupid to me. Sitting in church and have birds dropping their poop on your head isn't my idea of clever.
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