The project aims to create a synthetic forest where animals can feel protected, and would not mind it being artificial. It is a place where the strangeness and attractiveness of natural environments are exaggerated.

The rainforest canopy system is the algorithmic reference of the project. The rainforest's natural layering system, the assemblage of ecotope, and the sizes of animal territories are significant aspects of reference. There are no clear physical boundaries between different animal species in the rainforest. Everything is seamlessly woven into a cohesive ecosystem of adaptation and evolution.

Animals play a significant role in Hindu religion and Indian history, therefore the building would be inhabited by animals. Four different species of animals are chosen to be accommodated in the synthetic forest. The project aims to create a heterotopia where animals are being taken care of and worshipped as deities, instead of trading commodities.

The site is located in Sonepur, Bihar Province, Northern India, between the convergence of two sacred rivers - Gandak and Ganges. It is a place where the largest animal fair in Asia happens every November. The animal fair attracts millions of animal traders around Asia to exchange domesticated and wild species. Many religious pilgrims congregate here to take religious dip in the sacred river and to worship animals at Hariharnath Temple. The place is famous for its elephant market where Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb used to buy elephants.

The project starts with the synthesis of inspirational ideas, the aesthetic, strangeness and exaggeration of natural environment in its various forms, as well as existing forms of interaction between human and non-human beings.

Elephant festival demonstrates how modern human interact with animals in a religious and traditional way, and video games, such as Diablo displays the way human interact with non-human characters in the digital era.

Exogenic forces in nature, such as rock decay, tree growth and water erosion, animal architects such as weaver bird's nesting strategy and spider's instinctive webbing are all inspirations for the spatial system design.

Based on the principles of tensegrity structure, the project would be constructed out of tensile cables and compressive columns. There are three different typologies of the structural column, which provide anchors and joints of the weaving of synthetic architectural canopy.

Prototypes experiment how the building can constructed, and how the space is being framed using designated structural elements. Each prototype testifies a different aspect of the architectural feature in relation to the spatial principal of the synthetic rainforest.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lingleng

The architectural forest can be woven by choreographed robotic drones flying and travelling up and down strings and columns, knitting soft corridors and dense nests of varying densities according to different animals' body sizes and their ecotope features.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lingleng

The synthetic canopy is created via tensile cables. In the same way a spider would weaving its web, the canopy can be woven by robotic spiders. It creates different densities of space, as well as cavities wherein animal species can nest and climb through. The canopy has different layers just like in the real rainforest environment. It is a soft universe where nature takes control.

The synthetic canopy is created via tensile cables. In the same way a spider would weaving its web, the canopy can be woven by robotic spiders. It creates different densities of space, as well as cavities wherein animal species can nest and climb through. The canopy has different layers just like in the real rainforest environment. It is a soft universe where nature takes control.

The synthetic canopy is created via tensile cables. In the same way a spider would weaving its web, the canopy can be woven by robotic spiders. It creates different densities of space, as well as cavities wherein animal species can nest and climb through. The canopy has different layers just like in the real rainforest environment. It is a soft universe where nature takes control.

Based on the principles of tensegrity structure, the project would be constructed out of tensile cables and compressive columns. There are three different typologies of the structural column.