Living Bench Donated to Children's Playground in Hospital
Plantware has donated one of it's prototypes - the living bench to the children's playground in the "Shiba" hospital complex in Tel-Aviv. The bench was donated on a temporary template which will be removed when the roots holding up the seat have become thick enough and strong enough. The seat is the only deadwood part of the bench that will remain embedded permanently. The bench was designed with this in mind. It was planted in Revivim (Israel) a year before being relocated to the hospital.



Plantware design for living playground receives "excellent work" honor from the Japan Design Foundation
Tel Aviv March 10, 2006 - The Plantware initiative is proud to announce that it's design for a living playground that was submitted to the International Design Competition Osaka 2005 was chosen as one of the 67 excellent works. The International Design Competition held by the JDF is considered one of the most prestigious design events of the year. In 2005 the theme for the competition was "Energy: Sustainable and Enjoyable Life". Subtheme 3 was defined as "Living Environment - At public spaces where people get together, there are many energy-related challenges. The energy issue is deeply related to deforestation, air pollution and other environmental problems; safety and maintenance of social systems and disaster prevention..."
Plantware submitted a work titled "Kinder Forest: A Living Playground" introduced as follows - KinderForest gives children real trees to play with, gives parents a natural alternative for their children and gives earth urban reforestation that is functional, enjoyable and green. Creating structures from living trees means that ~95% of the playground’s mass is taken from the air using local sunlight and rain. No gasoline-burning chainsaws, trucks, ships or waste. Such structures can live for 700 years and are self repairing, earthquake safe, oxygen producing and provide a habitat for wildlife coinciding with their purpose for humans.
Plantware Pioneers Method for International Delivery of Living Design Material
Tel Aviv November 7, 2005 - The Plantware initiative is proud to announce the successful dispatch and receipt of long rooted Ficus plants from its growing facilities in Israel to The USA and Japan. Long rooted Ficus trees, grown according to the Plantware method which renders them amenable to subsequent shaping were sent via air mail to two central arenas in the arborsculptural scene. Long rooted Ficus trees, were placed in a specially designed box and dispatched to the 2005 World Expo in Japan and to Richard Reames - world reknowed arborsculptor and author of “How to Grow a Chair”. Both trees passed phytosanitary inspection at the country of destination, and arrived alive and well at their new homes - where they were subsequently shaped and planted by their happy owners. The obvious advantage of this method is that anyone with an air mail address can now incorporate living plants into their design without having to cope with the difficulties of growing the living plant material.
Plantware announces the world’s first commercial large scale aeroponic facility.
Tel Aviv September 27, 2005 - The Plantware initiative has completed the construction of a large scale aeroponic facility that will “manufacture” trees that are to become living design material. The facility has a growing output of 60 trees every 6 months each of which will be 18 feet in length. In erecting the facility, Plantware has shown that large scale aeroponics can be implemented in an industrial setting at setup costs that allow for downstream projects that are commercially viable. The facility was erected at Kibuttz Revivim, which has partnered with Plantware on its quest to create ecological functional products out of shaped trees. Revivim is also home to the works of Aharon Naveh - an established Arborsculptor who contributed the centerpiece last year at the Growing Village Pavilion at the World Expo 2005.
Plantware to announce the completion of its first aeroponic growth facility.
Tel Aviv April 7, 2005 - The Plantware initiative is proud to announce the completion of its first aeroponic growth facility. The facility was designed to grow trees aeroponically up to a root length of 2 meters (6 feet). One of the major challenges of building this facility was to engineer it so that set up costs would be minimal. We hope that this is a first in a long productive line of tree making machines.