Acorn Granary
Institutional
Houston, Texas
2026
For the RICE-FIFA Sustainable Ecologies Installations project, we built Acorn Granary, a vessel for storing sustenance which reimagines an indigenous
architectural typology alongside that of the industrial grain hopper. Situated beneath the
tree canopy of Rice University, this installation invites us to think about acorns and oaks,
which are host to a wide range of insects and animals. The Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) is an ecological architect of the Rice campus. However,
the abundance of its mast, or the seasonal dropping of acorns, is often overlooked. This
acorn granary highlights the oak’s metabolic labor by inviting passersby to participate in the
harvest. Visitors are encouraged to gather fallen acorns from the surrounding Live Oak
guilds and deposit them into the granary, welcoming all of us to recall our own heritage
and the story of this land.