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Root Foundations

Opening context:
Columns at the Corners, Site Repair, Connection to the Earth

Conflict

The best foundations of all are the kinds of foundations which a tree has — where the entire structure of the tree simply continues below the ground level, and creates a system entirely integral with the ground, in tension and compression.

Resolution

Try to find a way of making foundations in which the columns themselves go right into the earth, and spread out there — so that the footing is continuous with the material of the column, and the column, with its footing, like a tree root, can resist tension and horizontal shear as well as compression.

Closing context:
Box Columns, Ground Floor Slab