Well it's finally official - the announcement of winners and the like for the Integrating Habitats Competition. The celebration was held about a month ago now (Feb 26) and we've all been basking in the warm glow of adoration since then... The team and our entry got lot's of photo ops at the celebration (that's some of us there below).
:: images via Uncage the Soul Productions
A follow-up for Metro is the voting for People's Choice Awards and their blog to keep people updated on next steps. Also a big step is the production of the competition publication, which can be had upon completion by emailing Metro. And the jury, well it was pretty awesome, including:
:: Stefan Behnisch, principal, Behnisch Architects-Stuttgart, Germany and Venice, Calif.
:: Joan Nassauer, professor of landscape architecture, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Mich.
:: Tom Schueler, founder, Center for Watershed Protection-Ellicott City, Md.
:: Susan Szenasy, editor in chief, Metropolis Magazine-New York, NY
:: Jim Winkler, president, Winkler Development Corporation-Portland, Ore.
:: David Yocca, director, Conservation Design Forum-Elmhurst, Ill.
The competition was interesting as it addressed a local issue with some global implications. From Metro: "Integrating Habitats sought multi-disciplinary, collaborative designs of the future that integrate built and natural environments. Winning designs selected by this world-renowned jury redefine the current language and standards of environmental sustainability by fostering balance between conservation and development, maximizing biodiversity and safeguarding water quality for this generation and those to come."
Our teams submittal, and the winner of Category 2, involved a commercial development with a lowland hardwood forest habitat interface, including big-box green home center, a lot of parking, and remnant wetlands. Here is some more detail about our submittal and how we solved this tough problem.
Urban Ecotones:
Transitional Spaces for Commerce and Culture
Project Team:
:: GreenWorks PC: Jason King + Brett Milligan
:: Bruce Rodgers Design Illustration: Bruce Rodgers
:: Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects: Scott E. Thayer, Michael S. Great, Justin C. Hunt
:: ESA Adolphson: John Gordon
:: SWCA Environmental Consultants: Christie Galen, Coral Mirth Walker, Kim Gould
Project Statement:
This design intervention provides a vision for how innovative home building centers can thrive economically, adapt to anticipated future city conditions, and provide a model for regenerating critical habitat corridors at a city-wide scale. We assert that the major challenge to current and future big box developments will be their reliance on fossil fuels, and generic, non-site specific land development. 
Two Portland planning documents advised our design: Metro’s 2040 Growth Concept and Portland’s Peak Oil Task Force 2007 Report (Descending the Oil Peak: Navigating the Transition from oil and Natural Gas). Both documents critically examine transportation infrastructure and propose actions Portland should take to prepare for the future. Portland’s Peak Oil Task Force predicts that there will be a dramatic change in transportation and lifestyles due to fossil fuel shortages within the next 30 years. This fact has led our team to critically assess the prescribed parking requirement and its utility in the future. Our design proposal meets the current parking requirement and offers a regenerative economic replacement strategy should large parking areas become obsolete. 
Our design strategy is guided by time based, economic and ecological systems to provide an adaptive development model for the shift from fossil fuel dependency to a more localized economy. For example, unwanted yard and food wastes are brought on site and transformed into compost to assist with the regeneration of low HCA areas and to generate economic capital. Stormwater management strategies utilize existing topography and hydrological patterns to collect and cleanse water with technologies that replicate wetland processes and habitats.
Particular attention has been given to thresholds at which commercial development meets natural systems. Rather than seeing these interactions as points of confrontation, they are approached as environments of unique richness—a synergy of both habitats akin to an ecotone: the transitional area between two ecosystems containing more diversity and biotic activity than singular habitats. Rather than impinging upon natural systems on site, habitat buffers are increased to provide a shared zone of mutually-beneficial interaction.
Economically, our development model taps into Portland’s leading market for sustainable building practices and lifestyles, and fosters community by creating service- oriented building centers near regional and town centers to meet the challenges of post peak-oil conditions. 
Through day-lighting, façade articulation and site responsive features, the architecture provides a contrasting experience that will attract nearby shoppers from adjacent big box developments for the engaging experience the site will offer them. 
Additional Project Elements: 
:: Enlarged View of Big-Box Green Home Center + Parking
:: Enlarged View of Community Agriculture Center and Composting Facilities
:: Site flows of people, fauna, flora, and water were balanced throughout
:: Parking (re)volution involved a unit with multiple possible iterations 
:: Technical Detail of Parking Lot Removal and Replacement
Concept sketches:
:: Stormwater Ponds, Regional Trail + Transitional Parking Edge 
:: Trail through HCA and entry to Home Center with Habitat Rooftop
:: HCA to Community Agriculture Transition Zone
Anyone looking for more information or higher resolution images, please feel free to drop a comment. We're planning on getting the word out and excited about the competition and it's potential to reshape the built environment and truly integrate habitat with development.
And for those of you in the Portland area - the winning entries for the competition will be on display, live and in living color, beginning April 1st in the Bureau of Development Services - 1900 Building lobby, located at 1900 S.W. Fourth Ave., in Portland. Check it out.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Integrating Habitats Competition: Urban Ecotones
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Veg.itecture: #19
aka. The Pooktre Vegitectural Prize Awarded
Well, all the lobbying for Jean Nouvel as one of the pre-emininent Veg.itects of our time has paid off with the recent announcement that he was recently awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize for 2008. While not as prestigious as aforementioned PVP, congrats are in order all the same.
:: image via NY Times
A review and acknowledgement that there are is a long line of storied architects whom have claimed this prize. Vegetated Architecture is not on the list of requirements, but fit nicely into the overall theme: "The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize is to honor annually a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture."
His most known work of Veg.itecture is the oft-viewed Musee du Quai Branly in Paris. From the NY Times overview of the Pritzker award: "The bulk of Mr. Nouvel’s commissions work has been in Europe however. Among the most prominent is his Quai Branly Museum in Paris (2006), an eccentric jumble of elements including a glass block atop two columns, some brightly colorful boxes, rust-colored louvers and a vertical carpet of plants. “Defiant, mysterious and wildly eccentric, it is not an easy building to love,” Mr. Ouroussoff wrote in The Times."
One building in the US I did get to see and like (but was frankly underwhelmed by the landscape architecture) was the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, perched on the revitalized waterfront and making a bold statement for somewhat hum-drum prairie design. Not Veg.itecture, but a fine and tangible personal Nouvel project.
:: Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN - image via NY Times
So as we celebrate Nouvel, we turn our attention to some of the recent Vegetated Architecture that is changing the face of the dual intertwined professions of landscape + architecture. Some notable additions to delicately place on foam, stick pins neatly skewering the corners, and a curt, hand-written label to the side.
So perhaps my heavy-handed allusion to specimen collecting was not lyrical enough to preface the announcment of 'The Worlds Biggest Butterfly House' happening in the UK, as reported on Treehugger. The project looks somewhat funky (perhaps just representational, as the buff colored materail reminds me of kitty litter) with it's geodesic dome and earth-sheltered pupae, nestled into the landscape of meadows and gardens. Probably something only a butterfly or Bucky Fuller could love.
:: image via Treehugger
The next project has a striking form, and has the press-cred to warrant lots of exposure... as well as some subtle integration of building and landscape in poetic and functional ways. Via Inhabitat, the design for Precinct 4, by Studio Nicoletti Associati and Malaysian architects Hijjas Kasturi Associates, "...is a refreshing and original with unique, marine-inspired structures - which also draw from traditional Islamic designs - arranged in a permeable, radiating block of bioclimatic architecture." 
:: images via Inhabitat
The use of bioclimatic architecture makes us thing fondly for our other Veg.itecture pioneer, Ken Yeang, whose extensive use of vegetation as environmental strategy has defined the theory for architects such as these to follow. The use of indiginous forms and strategies derived from place and climate are vital to proper melding of these two concepts. Shifting to a neighboring region of Hong Kong, Dezain showcased a link to Hong Kong Jockey Club and their Central Police HQ by Herzog & de Meuron (Pritzker winners, as well). Not quite the same as the typical cop-shop in the US...
:: images via HKJC
A new building on World Architecture News in London by Renzo Piano (a Pritzker alum) knocked me over with a smashing green facade (until i realized it was merely a green wall of ceramic and glass, un-vegetated). Oh well, it's a nice thought. The project didn't disappoint, with a wonderfully rendered (if someone monocultural) rooftop terrace to more than make up for my disappointment. 
:: images via WAN
While we're talking Starchitects and former Pritzker winners, a new one in LA by Frank Gehry has vegetation toppling down a cascade of building forms. Following our recent post on significant Los Angeles open spaces - this submittal include park connectivity as a major feature. From World Architecture News: "Also to be improved as part of the project is the existing County Mall, which will be transformed into a 16-acre park stretching from the Music Center at the top of Bunker Hill to City Hall at the bottom of the Hill. The park will become the new "Central Park" of Los Angeles and will be the scene of many citywide celebrations as well as daily events."
:: image via WAN
And to shift gears somewhat - and pick up a much earlier thread of growing your own Treehouse - growing your own park structure. Via Treehugger, a company named Plantware's approach: "...is known as tree shaping, arborsculpture, living art or pooktre."
Pooktre? I thought we were talking about Pritzker? Anyway, I gotta remember that one for Scrabble anyway. A notable quoate from Treehugger by Plantware CEO explains the inspiration: "A fantasy about building houses from living trees, inspired by the ficus tree, whose roots create amazing forms. We discovered a way to control the direction in which a tree grows, which can be used to grow structures that will be useful and environmentally-friendly." If you have the time, I'd definitely recommend it.
:: image via Treehugger
This is definitely not a new phenomenon, as Treehugger points out. On a related note - pooktre pioneer Axel Erlandson from California: "...started shaping trees in 1925, and by the late 1940's opened up "The Tree Circus," a tourist attraction which has now been transplanted to an amusement park in Gilroy, California."
:: image via Arborsmith Studios
Time to play, veg.itect style. I bet Nouvel would love these... and what's next, the Pooktre Vegitectural Prize? Why not?
Parks: With Los Angeles Style
A couple of recent announcements in World Architecture News has definitely aimed the spotlight at Los Angeles for cutting edge parks and open space implementation. And this doesn't even include the local media-saturated Orange County Great Park (subject of some upcoming coverage of our own here at L+U).
The first project is by one of the OC Great Park team members, LA-based Mia Lehrer + Associates (along with Denver-based team members Wenk Associates and Civitas). It's exciting to see collaboration between not just multi-disciplinary teams, but also amongst Landscape Architecture and planning firms to provide specific aspects of experience to a project, such as urban planning, water design focus, or environmental specialization. I expect for large-scale projects this makes more sense, but can be a model for other projects as well.
WAN profiled their work for a 'River Renovation at the Heart of LA' with a goal: "...to plan a comprehensive open space network in and around the Los Angeles River corridor." The summary continues to include the goals of the project: "Revitalizing the river includes four major goals: (1) enhanced flood storage, to slow flow velocities to enable reintroduction of vegetation; (2) enhanced water quality, through regional scale storm water treatment at river confluences, and localized “treatment terraces” at storm drain outfalls; (3) enhanced public access within the channel via terraces and ramps, small pocket parks and ponded areas; and (4) a restored riparian ecosystem."
:: image via WAN
This involves an expansive vision that included not only the river itself but extends into the surrounding urban fabric: Via WAN: "Greening the neighborhoods extends the River’s influence into adjacent neighborhoods, encompassing five goals: (1) creation of a continuous River Greenway that serves as the City’s “green spine;” (2) reconnecting neighborhoods to the River through a system of “green streets;” (3) recapturing underutilized or brownfield sites in park-poor areas as neighborhood parkland, and incorporating stormwater management practices into all public landscapes; (4) enhancement of River identity through signature bridges and gateways, and through programmed events; and (5) incorporating public art along the River."
:: image via WAN
A recent summary involves a historic reinterpretation of Los Angeles State Historical Park and have connections to the overall LA River corridor as well. The winner of a recent design competition (via WAN): "...the Hargreaves Associates proposal restores the lost connection of the people of Los Angeles to their history, their River, and to nature. The 32-acre park expresses the site's interwoven histories and cultural significance through the Nueva Zanja, tracing the route of an historic water channel and re-interpreting it as an historical walk that recalls the multiple histories and meaning of the site."
:: images via WAN
Again via WAN: "The design provides a plaza for gatherings and events, gardens and recreational spaces, pedestrian and fauna bridges, wetlands and interpretive centers. The project also provides a key link between the mountainous Elysian Park, and the channelized LA River. The project proposes a flexible edge to the LA River, adaptive to different possibilities for the future of the river that free it from its current channelized state."
The connections to the river in this case are both accomodating of pedestrians, as well as habitat - including two 'fauna bridges' as shown in the diagram below. This acknowledgement of the overall habitat connectivity and accomodating types of urban fauna is an important trend of park development and aids in not just the physical restoration of the park and riparian corridor, but the liveliness of the social and ecological systems.
:: image via WAN
And representationally, the graphics for this competition mimick many of the recent submittals including the illustrative collage technique that focusses not just on spatial form but is evocative of the use of materials and forms. In this case, structures are more abstracted, rendered in a generic translucent white, which really accentuates the vegetative and site qualities such as the overhead structure (top), and the death-defying section cut stairway and water play feature (below) all populated with an appropriate multi-cultural cast of characters that is indicative of a LA user group for urban parks.
:: images via WAN
And we finish with a landscape art as semi-orgasmic experience, via the LA Times coverage of Patrick Dougherty's installation at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, and author Debra Prinzing's poetic summary: "Titled "Catawampus," the installation ... beckons from the main path at the in Arcadia, sunlight slipping between the warp and weft of twigs. The tactile quality of each thread-like branch appeals to me: the in-and-out, the over-and-under. I run my hand along the twisted surface, marveling at the density of 4-inch-thick walls. My fingers stroke the soft tips, velvet against the rough bark." 
:: image via LA Times
May everthing we ever design illicit such a response...
Saturday, March 29, 2008
City Farmer News
City Farmer and it's 'Urban Agriculture Notes' has been around offering great urban agriculture links from Vancouver, BC for a number of years at their old, no-frills site and their demonstration garden. I was pleased to visit recently and see the link to the new blog-ish City Farmer News (added to the BlogCheck) site and tap into a number of those recent posts of some pretty tasty urban-ag happenings.
:: Demonstration Compost Garden - image via City Farmer News
A compelling profile of the CERES farm, located in Brunswick East, Victoria, Australia. CERES stands for Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies, and is also the name for the Roman goddess of agriculture. From CFN: "CERES farm demonstrates how an urban city farm can contribute to the local community by providing locally grown organic food, education in community food systems, a happening & ethical market place and employment for farmers, teachers and market workers."
:: image via City Farmer News
With a goal of encouraging urban agriculture, "City Farmer teaches people how to grow food in the city, compost their waste and take care of their home landscape in an environmentally responsible way." One notable example is the study for urban agriculture around the upcoming 2010 Olympic Games in the Southeast False Creek are of Vancouver. From the City of Vancouver: "SEFC will be a model of sustainable development. Unique features include: urban agriculture; a rainwater management system; green roofs; and a neighbourhood energy system."
:: image via City of Vancouver
There are links to a number of studies available by Holland Barrs Planning Group, which outline some of the urban agriculture goals. One such study centered around 'Designing Urban Agriculture Opportunities for Southeast False Creek, Vancouver, BC' and described a number of strategies for planning and desing urban ag into the fabric of the community.
:: image via Holland Barrs
A summary from the Holland Barrs site: "Develop design considerations and guidelines, technical considerations, and management strategies for effectively integrating urban agriculture (UA) into a high density neighbourhood. The report focuses on how UA is an innovative tool for urban design and can play a key role in building community around food. Topics covered in the report include: perspectives on food security, design principles for UA, a UA space typology, design ideas and considerations for UA in the public and private realms, technical considerations and support systems necessary for UA, and management strategies for endurance of the UA program over time."
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Green Roof in a Box?
No it's not the new SNL Digital Short with JT, but a rant about the commercialization of green rooftops. I usually don't mince words about 'packaged' vegetated systems and my disdain for them as a one-size-fits-all solution. It's not that I don't think there's value in the marketplace for an easier to implement solution. I tend to find that these systems lack the regional and site-specific qualities that make them successful in their search for Ikea-like packability. Some thoughts:
Thinking about it in terms of prefab, a good number of prefab houses come with the prefab green roof addition. The miniHome DUO is an example (amongst many) that has this feature, and it's represented in that sort of boxed, add-on, generic sort of way that is typical of modern prefab:
:: image via Jetson Green
A new product seen a few places recently jumped out at me for this very reason, mostly due to the simple commodification aspect, is Urban Roof Gardens, a UK company that literally is selling 'A Green Roof in a Box' for 12 square meters of vegetated rooftop for £590.00 (that's about $1,185 for 129 sf for ya'll on the non-metric part of the world) - which is pretty competitive in terms of pricing at less than $10/s.f. Although I'm always wary of a product that only offers you one grainy glimpse of the system.
:: image via Urban Roof Gardens
From the website: "...all you need for an instant green roof delivered direct to your door! Easy to install and low maintenance, your environmentally friendly green roof will provide recreational space for you and a habitat for wildlife. Your pack comes complete with a 4 component system ready for you to lay down: a RoofMat (comprising a root barrier and waterproof membrane), a GreenMat (for insulation, water retention and feeding), a GroLayer (special growth medium) and finally the SedumSpread (fasting rooting macerated sedum plants). We can supply in any quantity, and we're also happy to come and fit it - email us for a quote. Available NOW!"
Pretty much every company has some form or other of pre-packaged system, including the major big hitters in the roofing world. The names are pretty amusing as well, and deserves a more intensive posting to look at the variations. A few for some fodder and discussion: Garden Roof (Hydrotech), Sopranature (Soprema), Nature Roof (Corus), Eco-Roof (WP Hickman), Living Roofs, and Elevated Landscape Technologies to name a few.
A ready to install variation is from Xero Flor America, who is a grower and supplier of pregrown vegetated mats. Another company and product that deserves more attention (there are a couple of local Portland examples I'd like to see and profile). The vegetated mats were used in the US on the ground-breaking Ford Rouge Plant, where it was used to immediately cover literally acres of rooftop for instant coverage. Again price is an issue, but when you factor in instantaneous cover and reduced maintenance, it starts to make a lot of sense.
:: image via Xero Flor America
The green roof tray systems definitely come with a 'box' mentality. These include the popular GreenGrid, Green Roof Blocks, and a newer Portland company AVRS. The box idea is quite popular, and the advertising does reinforce the easy installation and flexibility of moving or removing if there are problems or changes. One drawback is the additional cost, which may or may not be worth it depending on the configuration of the rooftop. 
:: image via Toronto.ca
Another variation is 'Green Roof in a Bag' with a company called GreenPaks which offer some of the benefits with less material (and I'm guessing less cost).
:: image via GreenPaks
A rooftop agriculture version of the 'box' comes via City Farmer News, and a recent post on Earthbox. Advertised as 'Homegrown Vegetables Without A Garden', it definitely talks a good game: "Our maintenance-free, award-winning, high-tech growing system controls soil conditions, eliminates guesswork and more than doubles the yield of a conventional garden-with less fertilizer, less water and virtually no effort."
:: image via City Farmer News
:: Organic Ready to Grow Kit - image via Earthbox
A company I really admire that provides a measure of packaging with some customization is innovator Charlie Miller from Roofscapes, and the offerings of custom designed 'systems' such as the Ultralite Plaza and Roofrug which is advertised as the 'Industries Best Value' which includes install and two full years of maintenance. The regionalism and semi-commodification is handled through the Roofscapes Network, which has local companies that are representative installers for a particular geographic region. 
:: image via Roofscapes
It is healthy and good for a product or system to evolve from initial customization to commodification, but in the case of green roofs, I wonder if perhaps the concept is self-defeating. The ways in which this would make real market sense is that the products were able to be mass-produced with a lower price point. Most of these packaged systems tend to be priced at least the same or typically higher than a custom system.
A less product oriented, and perhaps more flexible solution comes via RoofBloom, a Minnesota based resource with a focus on garage-roof greening. A collaborative partnership between a number of groups, including the Minnesota Green Roofs Council, which is one of those local groups based on a more regional approach to green roofing that I think is the key to success.
The RoofBloom resource is a document entitled 'Green Your Garage, Volume One' which does a good job of not only giving the basics but also setting the local context for watershed protection. Also, it explains some of the scale issues, looking at not just one garage but the overall potential. From GYG: "Garages and other outbuildings do represent a significant land use in urban areas. As an example, fifty thousand two-car garages, each with a 480-square foot roof, represent 24 million square feet of impermeable surface. That's 550 acres of green space."
:: image via RoofBloom
Volume Two hints at some 'systems' that would work, and it would be interesting to see how adaptable they are to particular site and building specifics. In essence, a group in every city and region is somewhat necessary to facilitate and translate all of the myriad information in the universe into what will work in a particular locale or climate. I'd call that group green roof designers and landscape architects... preferably ones with a track record of success. By maybe I'm biased...
In summary, the old adage that all sustainability is local holds true - and perhaps is even more appropriate when talking about sustainable landscapes. So perhaps all green roof solutions are local as well. And while pre-packed systems are valuable and applicable to a number of conditions, more often than not, they don't come neatly flat-packed in a box. Sorry IKEA.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Trend-Spotting: Living Walls
It's official - green walls are the next BIG thing. Ok, we already knew that - but one reason I say this now? While coverage in the glossy design magazines is one thing, showing up on CNN.com is a good sign of a trend both spotted and confirmed. What's next? People magazine profiling Patrick Blanc? Veg.itectural Digest? (I like the sound of that one). One interesting part of this article was the following diagram that outlined some of the combined benefits of including a green roof and walls on a 10 story building.
:: image via CNN.com
This reinforces the concept in an earlier post that much of the exposed surface area, particularly in urban areas is found in the building skin - and thus a good portion of the energy benefits can be realized with facade greening, particularly on buildings with smaller roofs and taller that 2-3 stories. As the adage of losing most of your heat through your head is similar to building envelope, it makes sense: Full coverage = full benefit.
:: image via Dwell
A couple of projects unveiled this week only add fuel to this trendy fire, in some inventive ways. The first is dubbed Brooklyn's first living wall at the Oulu Bar & EcoLounge which was featured yesterday on Jetson Green. According to Preston at JG, the project (Correction, 03.28.08 - I previously listed the amount of living wall as 2500 sf, which is actually the building area, not sure of total living wall coverage) has the entire front facade covered in vegetation, using what at first glance looks like the ELT Living Wall Panels and planted with a mix of sedums, iceplant and other succulents.
:: images via Jetson Green
The most striking view is the before and after - which should be required viewing for any business with a need for some alternative façadism. You can find more information and photos from designer Evangeline Dennie's website as well.
:: images via Jetson Green
The next is a more abstractly artful example of wispy tendrils of vegetation for the Miami Art Museum by Herzog and de Meuron, and is striking in illustrative form and concept. Spotted on Inhabitat, the project is: "...described as the modern interpretation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon - an imaginative structure that bridges urban spaces, climates and cultures... As visitors move from the park into the open plaza, they will be greeted by a series of trees and columns, meant to resemble a forest canopy."
:: image via Inhabitat
Transportation and Space
It sounds obvious when you say it (and it has been said many times before) but it is always striking to see how influential modes of transportation are on the shaping of our cities. The magnitude and impacts are immense but also provide a range of new opportunities to explore. The typical figure ground study shows the differences and similarities of building and 'open space' - but misses the complexities of what these places are like experientially and ecologically. While some recent car-free cities have been proposed in other countries - is this a feasible option. It may be a fact of life that cars (in some way) will continue to have a sizable impact on planning for the foreseeable future.
:: image via Treehugger
To illustrate this point further, via Core77, a poster from the German city of Munster's planning office, showing the relative space taken up to transport the same number of people by auto, bus, and bike. Looks like bus and bike win out there hands down, what a surprise. (click to enlarge for more detail)
:: image via Core77
To put this in some numerical terms (somewhat non-spatial) a few choice stats from Yes! Magazine to reinforce the point some more:
:: Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on defense: 8,555
:: Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on health care: 10,779
:: Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on education: 17,687
:: Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on mass transit: 19,795 [source]
Or to put it more succinctly, the : "...amount of money that a community gains for every mile biked instead of driven: 50 cents [source]" This is reinforced with a call for real cost impacts of roads, challenging some of our existing and dated aesthetic notions, as well as striving for more 'Complete Streets'. This also involves re-envisioning the use of space in cities such as inventive new uses of alleys as well as perhaps redefining what it means to park downtown. Nonetheless, the web we weave is still there.
:: image via Treehugger
But we're talking about space, so what does this mean in terms of design? A compelling guest post on Where by Ella Peinovich describes some of the experience with a Winy Mass studio class aimed at 'Designing SkyCar City' ... which essentially had a simple aim: "…create a city built for the use of a skycar, a city with 'streets' at any level, or perhaps empty of streets as we know them…"
:: Futuristic Skycar - image via Skyaid
The essay mentions a companion book published of the solutions. One aspect that Ms. Peinovich addresses is the utopian tendency to want to make car-free cities - mostly as a cop-out to real problem solving of real problems. Here quote, again from Where: "...It is our responsibility as designers to address real issues rather than represent feel-good utopias. A city model that is designed in reaction to current outstanding issues of common society (e.g. waste disposal, greening, traffic relief etc…) will likely get a lot of attention and praise. On the contrary, our city model chose to explore and build up a topic which currently carries a negative stigma. We suggested that, as a society, we accept that every person wants the freedom of having their own car. We chose to assume this desire of every individual and suggest that public transportation has no future. We feel our model holds its clout because it is based on realistic projections of where society IS headed, rather than where it SHOULD be."
Well the promise of Skycars has not panned out so far, so perhaps looking at some of the materials in which to make space for our cars (and bikes, and people). Much press has been devoted to a variety of permeable options, which have a range of pros and cons. How about some other options? Jetson Green mentioned a recent project with: "...a Dutch office building that is both heated and cooled using heat (or cold) from the asphalt of the road outside the building, as opposed to the more conventional use of solar thermal panels on the building's roof."
:: image via Jetson Green
While not a flawless solution, the multi-functional aspects of this paving are laudable. Removal and/or burial is a great option as well. The Big Dig is finally completed and Boston is realizing the potential of this new found ribbon of open space and building areas within the fabric of the city. Adaptive reuse at it's finest. A profile in the NY Times showed some of this transformation.
:: images via NY Times
The benefits are huge, but burial is a problematic and expensive endeavor. Next option, get rid of the street. Portland (I brag) was on this trend previously, with the removal of Harbor Drive Highway that sliced through downtown alongside the riverfront, severing any connection to the river. In the earlier 1970s, the highway was removed and has become one of the most popular park spaces in the City.
:: Harbor Drive (1964) - image via Removing Freeways - Restoring Cities
What the drawings lack in refinement, they definitely make up for in vision. Definitely more poetic that the latest versions of the CRC, to say the least... or an opportunity to not just build a road, but build some community.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Urban Ag: The Buzz
If it's not landscaping on buildings or ecologically planning communities around the globe, it must be the buzz-concept of Urban Agriculture - and it's had a lot of press lately. A lot of press. And deservedly so - as the new face(s) of agriculture seem to be collecting into teeming masses with some traction towards big changes. Rather than focus on the new press, let's starting with an art/ag piece from a few years ago, 'Not a Cornfield' by Los Angeles based artist Lauren Bon.
:: image via Not a Cornfield
"Not A Cornfield is a living sculpture in the form of a field of corn. The corn itself, a powerful icon for millennia over large parts of Central America and beyond, can serve as a potent metaphor for those of us living in this unique megalopolis. This work follows a rich legacy of radical art during the 20th century on a grand scale. I intend this to be an event that aims at giving focus for reflection and action in a city unclear about where it's energetic and historical center is. With this project I have undertaken to clean 32 acres of brownfield and bring in more than 1,500 truck loads of earth from elsewhere in order to prepare this rocky and mixed terrain for the planting of a million seeds. This art piece redeems a lost fertile ground, transforming what was left from the industrial era into a renewed space for the public. ... By bringing attention to this site throughout the Not A Cornfield process we will also bring forth many questions about the nature of urban public space, about historical parks in a city so young and yet so diverse. About the questions of whose history would a historical park in the city center actually describe, and about the politics of land use and it's incumbent inequities. Indeed, "Not A Cornfield" is about these very questions, polemics, arguments and discoveries. It is about redemption and hope. It is about the fallibility of words to create productive change. Artists need to create on the same scale that society has the capacity to destroy.”
These ephemeral installations are great opportunities to both occupy blighted lands as well as the ability to reconnect residents to their agricultural pasts. A Portland project endeavoring to identify urban agriculture opportunities is the Diggable City, which identified available lands within the city for production. As I have mentioned previously, the opportunities to occupy available lands in urban areas for agriculture (on land, rooftop, and perhaps even facade) is a great multi-functional chance to provide self-sufficiency and interpretation.
As far as buzz goes, the terminology zipping around the, for lack of a better pun, crop circles - includes a number of new members of the agri-lexicon. One of my favorites is locavore, and a variant, the "100-mile diet" were recently profiled on Treehugger in a great post: "Green Basics: Local Food"
:: image via Treehugger
The post is worth a close read, and also has links to a number of local food resources. While we often use these terms, it's good to re-evaluate the ecological values embodied in the concept. The article adds: "The concept is also defined in terms of ecology, where food production is considered from the perspective of a basic ecological unit defined by its climate, soil, watershed, species and local agrisystems; everything together is defined as as "ecoregion" or "foodshed."
Ah, a couple of other terms, one that is getting much use is "foodshed". A new term, right? Well, not exactly. Adapted from the ecological concept of watershed, the term was coined in 1929 to: "...describe the flow of food from the area where it is grown into the place where it is consumed." (via Wisconsin Foodshed Research Project). The exact radius varies for the distance of acceptable food miles traveled, but just for kicks, strike a 100 mile circle around your house, and consume from just this area. Now do this in Houston - or Phoenix - or Fargo. It is possible, but not necessarily easy.
:: image via Treehugger
Another term that was pointed out to me in a comment to previous post involving the significant carbon sequestration potential in soils. The latest term picked up recently by Treehugger, involves biochar (aka agrichar, terra preta) not just for Simply put it is: "...what you get when biomass is heated in the absence of oxygen through a process called pyrolysis. When incorporated into soil, biochar provides the structural habitat needed for a rich community of micro-organisms to take hold. Incorporating biochar into soil can also act as a way to sequester carbon."
What's the big deal? Again, multi-functional solutions. (via Treehugger): "Biochar is a classic win-win scenario, a solution that can provide us with a valuable tool for fighting climate change, world hunger, poverty, and energy shortages all at the same time." A number of new initiatives are capitalizing on the phenomenon, including the International Biochar Initiative and the Biochar Fund, both with some great additional resources.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Veg.itecture #18
A significant number of Vegetated Architecture examples with facade and rooftop greening strategies. I hope no one suffers from sensory overload with this weekends dual Veg.itecture posts, so without further ado, the projects:
I spotted this project by Veg.itect Jean Nouvel via Dezain for the "Building C1" in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, and it was a pretty interesting form. Some more info showed up on designboom, along with an architect's statement, "'...this non tower is about stratification, about stacking, about finding reasons to invent terraces, fictitious horizons, contrasts, about revealing references, diversities, interferences with nature, a distant dialogue with saint-cloud hillside. the intention is for people to feel that the space that they live or work in is different from their neighbor's place - the people who use this building are not numbers." 
:: images via designboom
Another recent example was featured on both Pruned and Treehugger (both via Archinect) for the evolo skyscraper competition entry entitled 'Symbiotic Interlock' by Daekwon Park. Both representationally and conceptually, this project continues the emerging dialogue about the use of facades for more functional uses such as food production and power generation. In terms of tall skyscrapers with small footprints and by default, small roofprints, the greening of the upper surface has certain limitations - so looking at other opportunities for functional greening makes sense. (Read more about this in previous L+U posts 'Building Edges' and 'Defining Moments')
:: image via Treehugger
Quoting Treehugger: "Clipping onto the exterior of existing buildings, a series of prefabricated modules serving different functions would be stacked on top of each other, adding a layer of green space for gardening, wind turbines or social uses to make new green façades and infrastructures."
:: images via Treehugger
The concept of adaptive reuse - or attaching new structures to existing is a novel concept for future increasing of urban density as well by not removal but augmentation of the existing structures - a way of updating without starting over in some cases. It also expands on the concept of using building-related and urban microclimates, particularly for site-specific generation of wind power (see image above) - taking the phenomenon of wind tunnels created due to building mass and creating some benefit from this. 
:: image via Pruned
The coverage definitely picks on these threads of maximizing opportunities in urban areas, and the large amount of surface area on urban building facades. Obviously, this brings up certain more challenging technical aspects of the gravity-defying nature of greening building edges, which has been extensively covered here. These concept are still more representational than realistic, but it's compelling in expanding the dialogue (and technical problem solving) of what is possible. The challenge for designers: Make these fantastically wild ideas and make them work.
:: images via Pruned
One of my favorites of the evolo entries summary on Treehugger was from Claudiu Barsan-Pipu, Oana Nituica, Irina Dragomir and Bogdan Ispas and their vision of an 'Urban Bypass' in Bucharest with hanging pods of structured greenery along elevated tracks. Wha?
:: image via Treehugger
Back to Nouvel for a second - a cadre of projects for a current competition for the Tour Signal which envisions a new tower in the La Défense business district in Paris. While representational, it's a testament to the vertical greening phenomenon (and quite provocative idea) of diagrammatically showing the building program and potential form. Also, this seemed to be the only shortlisted submittal (along with Libeskind, Foster+Partners, Jacques Ferrier, and Wilmotte et Associes) with any significant greening (at least of the visible kind.)
Veg.itecture #17
There seems to be a significant backlog of Vegetated Architecture examples I will catch up on in the upcoming week. For this version, we will focus on a typology that we featured previously, some abstracted and representational vegetation forms in buildings and artwork. These span incorporation into building structure and form - as well as encompass some stand-along installations that provide poignant symbols of the connection with culture and nature.
:: images via The Design Blog
A more modest example, less structural and more aesthetic, comes via Coolboom. The Lilja Chapel by Vesa Oiva is a portable chapel that again evokes natural forms that have strong cultural resonance: "The chapel’s glass wall acts as background for outdoor events. As light flows through the pattern, it brings to mind a forest, the pace where Finns traditionally go to be in peace."
:: images via Coolboom
Another great abstract example from Coolboom is the The Leaf Chapel, in Kobuchizawa, Japan. On the grounds of the Risonare Resort, this building designed by Klein Dytham Architecture. Taking the form of two overlapping leaves, it creates a stunning form (especially at night) and a enveloping gateway to the adjacent views of nature:
Via Coolboom: "The chapel is formed by two leaves. The glass leaf with its delicate lace pattern motif emulates a pergola. The white steel leaf perforated with 4700 holes, each of which hold an acrylic lens, is similar to bride’s veil made of delicate lace. Light filters through the lenses and projects a lace pattern onto the white fabric inside... At the end of the ceremony when the groom lifts the bride’s veil for the kiss the “steel veil” magically opens too, revealing the pond and the enchanting nature beyond. Then the wedding party carefully walks on the stepping stones across the pond where the lawn surrounded by trees welcomes them for the champagne toast."
:: images via Coolboom
On the fully artistic side, a few examples from literal to representational. gardenhistorygirl is a great blog that spans garden history as well as connecting the dots between history and current practice (something we should all do more often) - check it out (and thanks to Pruned for the link). This example 'Stacking' is by artist Alastair Heseltine redefines the phases of material into a representation of the organic tree form.
:: image via gardenhistorygirl
A more literal interpretation of trees is an installation by Roxy Paine in NY City's Madison Park. I was welcomed by the ghg's comment that: "... tree forms from unusual materials are not in themselves terribly unique, I think these are brilliantly sited. I love the way they seem to reach for each other." My first reaction was, oh, more metal trees... but I do agree that the 'gateway' was an inventive formal interpretation.
:: image via gardenhistorygirl
We end with some whimsical examples from Tokyo Train Stations, via PingMag, offering a range of art installations that evoke a multiple media to create obvious and subtle forms: "Often, these representations of nature are not that obvious: Some stations find a connection by selecting colours, abstractly reflecting the tone of the environment in that neighbourhood."
:: images via PingMag
These examples have a duality that is important. One is picking up on the organic nature, via elements of Biomimicry, both technical and aesethetic, in the development and implementation of building forms. The other is capturing the beneficial qualities of views of nature in places where it is not readily accessible. Both of these accentuate and provide additional depth to the continual blurring of architecture and nature that is making the experience of built form more rich and complex.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
100: Seeds Revisited
Well, it's happened eventually. On this auspicious day, we post the 100th entry to Landscape+Urbanism. It has definitely not been too long since I got over my misguided hatred of blogs and got motivated (and inspired by all the others out there) to start my own. So let's revisit the simple ideas I threw out there when first proposing this blog (Seeds, 10.26.07):
"This is set up to be my clearinghouse of musings on Landscape Urbanism, Landscape Architecture, and Planning, Design and related subjects. I'm not really planning on this for public consumption, rather an electronic journal of things that interest me, a chance to write more often, and an outlet for thoughts. But if perchance someone happens to stop by, welcome and feel free to contribute/comment. ... My interest in landscape urbanism as a specific topic has been relatively recent, but upon discussion and further investigation, i realized that many ideas that i have been interested in over the years have threads in common with landscape urbanist theory, and really struck me as a vital theoretical outlet. My interests in general are diverse, so my guess is that the content will wander, but a concept like landscape urbanism seems to have enough breadth to accomodate a perpetual generalist."
So what do I know now after 100 posts..?
1. Well for starters, this is fun, educational, addictive, and useful. My thought process as a designer/planner/etc. is always to cast a wide net of information and use it to shape the places and processes that are developed. The digital media and access to, frankly, WAY TOO MUCH INFORMATION, is both a blessing and a curse. I get scolded for constantly checking RSS feeds for the latest thing to pop up - then spend the rest of the time trying to piece together the remnants into a coherent thread. If it's interesting and compelling for people to read, great. If not, it's part of my process, and is perhaps uniquely legible and helpful to just me.
:: image via Synchroncity
2. There is a wealth of intelligence and intellect on a number of blogs - as well as a real feeling of community. And by community I don't mean the total wonderful utopia - but similar aspects of real life. Ok, so I've never met most of these people, but I feel like I appreciate and enjoy these daily, once removed interactions, with bloggers like Geoff Manaugh, Brendan Crain, and Alexander Trevi to name a few - as well as some locals I respect and enjoy chatting, both virtually (Brice Maryman) or over a beer (Dave Elkin). I get jealous when someone posts something profound or finds something amazing... but I get over it. Either way, it constantly amazes me the information and knowledge available amidst the clutter.
:: image via Curbed
3. As you may have noticed, I REALLY like buildings with plants on/in them... and I also like photos and more likely renderings of said buildings - even really bad ones like the one below. Much of this is happening in Europe and Asia, and thus I am simultaneously planning a comprehensive world tour to touch and interact with said buildings as well. Much of this is happening on paper as well. I also really enjoy taking these ideas and integrating them into projects in my work. Someday perhaps I can collaborate with Ken Yeang or Jean Nouvel... guys?
:: image via Curbed
4. I appreciate large-scale planning, and (as BLDGBLOG et. al) coin the term - landscape futures. Through interesting eco-planning, mapping, urban agriculture and visually stunning competitions these concepts impact cities and mesh together landscape and urbanism in new and exciting ways. The idea of urbanism, versus say city planning - is an important distinction. Open that dusty document and look at what is proposed - that's city planning. Step outside - that's urbanism. And, obviously, urbanism sounds (and is) much, much cooler.
:: image via Pruned
5. All of this has made me a better professional. I often think of Stephen Jay Gould, who wrote an essay every month for many years. I've wanted to do this for a long time - as writing tends to be a way of understanding what's going on in the world, and also what's going on in my head. I made it a point from the start of 2008 that I would try to write something every day. This doesn't mean cutting and pasting from elsewhere, but to actually write something original. So I've been mildly successful - but in terms of taking the influx of information and filtering it into something occasionally interesting, that's been fun.
So for the future, a few ideas:
- I will try to span both intelligent dialogue with readability, in most cases using the words of much better writers than myself to illustrate points.
- I will continue to post from a wide range of sources, and it will probably stay relatively true to the initial seed, as well as evolve. Currently, I am fascinated with urban agriculture, ecological planning, and vegetated architecture. This is enough for a lifetime.
- I will try to write better... but if you really could see inside my head and take a gander at what's churning around in there, you'd appreciate the relative clarity that comes out into the text. And INHO, pictures maybe don't equal 1000 words, but make the writing so much better.
- I will keep going until I do run out of things to talk about, even when I get that book deal like Geoff at BLDGBLOG did. Give me a year or two, it's gonna be a great book.
The best thing about seeds is you plant them, nurture them, and watch them grow. Also you are constantly surprised by the way they take on a life of their own. Furthermore, you can harvest from these seeds, and continually sustain and expand the growth.
This is how I feel about the first 100 posts. It's really just a start.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Local Color: Portland
Ah, I do spend time looking around the world for precedents and interesting projects. There is no shortage of amazing innovation and imagery around the globe and the web. Sometimes I forget to look in my own backyard (so to speak). I've previously picked up on some great coverage of a few GreenWorks projects, as well as some of the local plaza projects. To broaden the horizon, our local landscape architecture climate is usually pretty steamy, with a number of local projects - done by some other folks - and some locals... here's a taste.
The news of the first project in Portland using SIPS (Structurally Insulated Panels) found its way to me via Jetson Green. The project by Seed Architecture is the first to use the SIPS, mostly due to the fact that you are not by code allowed to use. PG explains: "The Seed SIPs House is unique in that the Portland structural code doesn't allow for construction with SIPs. Nevertheless, Portland's Office of Sustainability provided a Green Investment Fund grant to demonstrate the energy and material savings of SIP technology, and after several discussions / negotiations with Portland's Building Development Services, an agreement was reached to build the house with SIPs."
:: images via Jetson Green
The project has a sprinkling of some sort of vegetation on the non-descript rooftop as well. I'm a fan of modern (a really big fan) and this house, or at least it's representation, needs some work. Another more successful illustration job is the living wall and courtyard will grace the new Hotel Modera, a renovation by Holst Architecture of the nasty little Days Inn downtown. (Updated 03.20.08 - Also included on the team were interiors by Corso Staicoff, and local landscape architecture by Lango-Hansen). It will have all the modern necessities, with a serene (i.e. sparse) outdoor courtyard with a variable green facade in the outdoor space. Should be cool - and I can't wait to see it go in to kick the tires and see how it ticks.
:: images via Holst Architecture
The new AIA Center for Architecture has an innovative facade treatment as well which i'm excited to see come to realization. Unfortunately, I have not pictures - but any sort of vegetated green wall and LEED Platinum design deserves it own post, right? I'll get back to that one.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Reading List: (AD) Landscape Architecture: Site/Non-Site
:: image via Amazon
Edited (as well as significantly authored) by Michael Spens, the topics range widely, with a good breadth of subject matter. The content was varied with inclusion of that rarity - actual landscape architects from across the globe featured together - including an interesting review of Bernard Lassus (p.60), and a continent-spanning profile of the work of Gustafson/Porter (p.66).
:: Colas Corporation Upper Terrace Sketch by Bernard Lassus - p.64
Some work that was unfamiliar to me included that of Archigram founder Peter Cook. I've heard the Archigram name before, but didn't really know any of the specifics about Cook's theoretical leanings. From p. 15:
"The new architecture celebrates the fold-over of contrived surface with grasped surface. The new sensibility is toward terrain rather than patches or pockets. There is even a search for peace without escape - difficult for one to imagine amongst the chatter of the old city. ...For me it becomes even more intriguing if we pull the vegetal towards the artificial and the fertile towards the urban but in the end ...to find the magic of a place discovered, now that's architecture." (From Spellman (ed), Re-Envisioning Landscape/Architecture, 2003).
It's pure Landscape Urbanism from the core - specifically leaning towards vegetated architecture and landscape as form generator. This is even magnifed by a more experimental and expressive graphic technique that is refreshing (imagine what he could've done with some digital tools at his disposal).
:: Mound by Peter Cook (1964) - p.15
While I'm focussing on some visuals here for the most part, the overall scholarship is notable as well. One article in particular struck me as a wonderful companion to Cook's vegitecture leanings - and elucidated the Landscape Urbanism mantra of space forming capacity of landscape. 'New Architectural Horizons' by Juhani Pallasmaa (p.17) offers an essay about how: "...the over-intellectualisation of architecture has detached it 'from its experiential, embodied and emotive ground."
A choice quote related to this is found on p.22, in a section titled 'Synthetic Landscape': "The architecture profession at large might do better if we began to think of our buildings as microcosms and synthetic landscapes instead of seeing them as aestheticised objects. Architecture in our time has been concerned with landscape merely as a formal and visual counterpoint, or a sounding board for architectural forms. Today, however, buildings are increasingly beginning to be understood as processes that unavoidably go through phases of functional, technical and cultural change as well as processes of wear and deterioration. The fundamentally time-bound dynamic and open-ended nature of landscape architecture can provide meaningful lessons for a 'weak' or 'fragile' architecture that acknowledges vulnerability instead of obsessively fighting against time and change as architecture traditionally has done."
I was struck by reading some theory applied to American context and designers. Grahame Shane's 'Recombinant Landscapes in the American City' (p.24) investigates "...the approaches to landscape that have been emerging since the mid-20th century and are set to recombine urban assemblages whether they are located in historic city centres, postindustrial waterfronts or suburban sprawl."
:: Peck Slip, East River Waterfront Study (2005) - Richard Rogers, SHoP, Ken Smith
:: Pell Mall, Vallejo Plaza (2002-03) - Stone Meek Architecture & Urban Design
There is also a well documented study of US design featuring state-side landscape professionals. In 'Urban American Landscape', Jayne Merkel (p.36) covers a range of home-grown professionals, including Balmori Associates, Ken Smith, Field Operations, Patricia Johanson, Michael Van Valkenburgh, and Margie Ruddick/WRT.
:: Balmori Associates, Green Roofs - Long Island City (2002-25) - p.40
:: Sante Fe Railyard Park (2007) - Ken Smith, Mary Miss, Frederick Schwartz
And no self-respecting theory magazine would be complete without some densely packed informational diagrams that would make Edward Tufte proud. In this case, a graphic for a piece entitled 'Operationalising Patch Dynamics' by Victoria Marshall and Brian McGrath (p.52). The graphic is a classification of "...the physical structure of land-cover patches in Baltimore's Gwynns Falls Watershed... based on possible combinations of different percentages of five land-cover types. The numerical prevalence of patch classes results in a distinctive signature."
:: urban-interface - Baltimore Ecosystem Study (2006) - p.55
This type of graphic is more common as we are challenged to show temporal change and relationships between multiple dynamic systems simultaneously. While interesting visually, the translation of these dense graphics into designs is something that is still difficult to ascertain. An essay regarding the 'Toronto Waterfront Revitalisation' (p.48) along with a number of later essays, gives some real application to theory in new ways. While encompassing some interesting subject matter, the later essays tended to be less interesting due to their focus on the over-exposed (New Orleans) and the overly dense (techno-informational space making). The AD+ section was even less interesting, enough that I may have skipped most of it.
The strongest element of 'Site/Non-Site' was a focused view across the pond, entitled ''Activating Nature': The Magical Realism of Contemporary Landscape Architecture in Europe'. The essay by Lucy Bullivant (p.76)features the likes of West 8, Gross.Max, and Mosbach Paysagistes, and how they are: "...leading the way with their highly dynamic and inventive narrative approaches to history, culture and the emergent city."
The work of these three firms speaks for itself for the most part, and is backed up with an essay that provides some of the cultural differences as to the approach of European vs. North American landscape architects. Some have to due with some conservatism of the design community, others with the contextual differences between America with it's relative youth and the dense history of European countries.
:: Garden for a Plant Collector at the House for an Art Lover (2005) - Gross.Max
:: Le Jardin Botanique de Bordeaux (2004-05) - Mosbach Paysagistes
:: Luxury Village, Moscow, Russia (2004-06) - West 8
On that note, another recent addition to my library, and an economical one at that, was the alternative hardcover version of 'Mosaics - West 8' published by Birkhauser. An alternative cover that the previous edition I've seen previously, but a bargain at 25 bucks brand new for the hardcover version and oh, so worth it - with a lot of imagery I had yet to see. More to come on this one - and I think... it's no longer available at cheap pricing.
:: image via Riba Books
Alternatively, the editor of A/D Michael Spens also authored a book I imagined was going to be great and was for the most part a disappointment aside from the wonderful cover shot of Angela Danadjieva's West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle, a project I'm definitely itching to experience. I will admit to not actually reading a word of the text, but coffee table sized books are hard to bring to bed comfortably. Either way, I was expecting some fantastic imagery in 'Modern Landscape' (Phaidon Press, 2003). Reading 'Site/Non-Site' has motivated me to at least crack this open again and give the text a chance...
History: Learn, Plan + Re-plan
Ecological planning is not new. In fact elements of the ideaology we often speak about with such fresh energy has been part of the dialogue for some time - but it seems to be constantly reinventied in new and old ways around the world. This post is on the heels of recent projects by OMA and BIG for some rather square eco-cities, and some more aggregated news clippings, we also juxtapose this with certain recent firebug-as-attention-getting strategies employed to combat suburban excess, and the perils of not being 'green' enough.
What we all desire are solutions. To problems, to situations, to clients, and perhaps mostly to all of these that fit into our system of morals but also allows for peaceful coexistence with the rest of the world (animal, vegetable, and mineral). So again, a good point of departure in this striving for the 'latest' thing - is to look at the past to see about some of the strategies, legacies, and opportunities left to us - to remedy, or at the very least, to not keep making the same mistakes over.
The trend towards better development and ecological planning seems more recent but has many historical precedents. The perils of urban dwelling have long been predicted, and one that has plagued (or mesmerized) urbanists for decades. A 1932 article from Modern Mechanix, featured on Treehugger concludes that cities and: "... the infrastructure of gas, water and fuel is too complex, and that cities will become increasingly unhealthy."
:: image via Treehugger
The article continues in positing that "...SCIENTIFIC prophets looking into the future proclaim that our mammoth cities, the likes of which the world has never seen before, are doomed to obsolescence. In time, cobwebs will enshroud the cloud-piercing Empire State building and dandelions will grow on Fifth Avenue and Wall Street, they believe, after exhaustive studies into the trend of the times... With the disintegration of the city, these prophets say, there will come the development of diminutive villages which will cluster around a trading center, closely resembling the financial district of the present city..."
Sounds like a good enough reason for eco-planning. So what HAVE we been doing in the last 80 years or so? More of the same it seems. Is there light at the end of this tunnel... or at least solutions? We've mentioned Peak Oil, and it's increasing presence (which will become more and more evident). So some solutions:
First, from the UK is the idea of Transition Towns and the additional ideas of full-on Transition Culture. From the site: "People are choosing life and are manifesting that in their lives and their communities. People are starting to see peak oil as the Great Opportunity, the chance to build the world they always dreamt of... This is not a denial of the scale of the challenges we face, rather a practical and instinctual response to it. In towns and cities all over the world people are asking each other “what can we do about this?"
The main point that comes through in reading and studying transition culture is the concept of 'resilience'. Read more about this in a recently published book that has emerged is 'The Transition Handbook: from oil dependency to local resilience' by Rob Hopkins.
:: image via Transition Culture
We mentioned Peak Oil in previous posts, and this idea of incorporating resilience into our urban (and suburban) areas is a viable strategy that aligns with theories of Landscape Urbanism. The need for resilience is due to constant change in our environment - whether that be good or bad. It is a fact of life, planning, and design, and thus must be acknowledged.
How to explain and visualize this to others is a challenge and an opportunity. A recent study in Austrailia (via Treehugger) added another term to the lexicon: "Solastalgia -- "a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home," according to Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht; in essence, it's pining for a lost environment. It's the mashup of the roots solacium (comfort) and algia (pain), which, when combined, forms a term (and an idea) reminiscent of nostalgia."
:: The Future? - image via Treehugger
To visualize this phenomenon, look to a hot topic such as climate change - and try to make people understand what will change if the tide isn't stemmed (via Treehugger). "The theory is also a very interesting approach to thinking about climate change; it brings local context to a global problem that, to this point, has been very difficult to contextualize on an individual level. In addition to the predicted rising sea levels (that's San Francisco, above) and other additional consequences like habitat loss, ecosystem destruction and species' extinction, "
Due to the high increased cost of transportation, which peak oil will inevitably exacerbate, suburbia becomes a huge opportunity as well for significant changes. A story in the NY Times identified a new breed of environmentalist, with a huge potential:
"If the United States is ever to reduce its carbon emissions, suburbanites — that is, roughly half of all Americans, said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution — are going to have to play a big role. And lately, they are trying."
:: image via NY Times
The shift from suburban to urban green has been slow (from the NYT): "In November, Levittown, N.Y., the model postwar suburb, declared its intentions to cut carbon emissions by 10 percent this year. And a few suburban pioneers are choosing solar heating for their pools, clotheslines for their backyard, or hybrid cars for their commute... But the problem with suburbs, many environmentalists say, is not an issue of light bulbs. In the end, the very things that make suburban life attractive — the lush lawns, spacious houses and three-car garages — also disproportionally contribute to global warming. Suburban life, these environmentalists argue, is simply not sustainable."
This doesn't mean jettisoning the suburban lifestyle, but evolving it to a more environmentally friendly pattern that increases density and reduces house size: "In a 2004 study of the environmental impact on transportation in the Atlanta metropolitan region... Lawrence D. Frank, a professor of sustainable transportation at the University of British Columbia ...found that the average carbon emissions per person per workday were about 10 percent lower in neighborhoods with six to eight dwellings per acre — a typical suburban layout — than in a more spacious one with only two to four dwellings per acre, simply because people drive shorter distances in denser suburbs."
Urban areas are opportunities as well. A recent post by Brian Libby at Portland Architecture offered some insight from the literature, in this case Urban Imaginaries: Locating the Modern City, edited by Alev Cinar and Thomas Bender. Libby quotes the authors and adds:"For millennia,” they write, “the city stood out against the landscape, walled and compact. This concept of the city was long accepted as adequate for characterizing the urban experience. However, the nature of the city, both real and imagined, has always been more permeable than this model reveals... When you start into the ten essays in Urban Imaginaries, the writing can be pretty dry and academic. But the larger point is a relevant one: that grasping and defining and describing the city, as if there is one uber-city template, can easily flounder."
A tangible example of adaptation and evolution in the Bay Area is the current revitalization of Treasure Island. Currently a Superfund site, it was (via Treehugger): "Originally built for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, the man-made island was constructed out of dredged sea bottom poured into rock walls and covered with soil. The island then served as a Naval base from WWII until the 1990's." The site is found between San Francisco and Oakland and is currently envisioned as an ecocity for 13,500 people.
:: image via Treehugger
Via Treehugger, an overview of some of the sustainable features: "...streets will be angled in order to maximize solar energy for heating, cooling and lighting and protect residents from the wind. Every single building built on the island will have LEED Gold certification. About half of the island's 400 acres will be set aside for open spaces, including an urban farm to supply organic local food to the residents, constructed wetlands to purify storm water runoff, and a restored natural forest ecosystem. All food scraps and grass clippings produced on the island will be composted for use by the farm. Electricity will come from a combination of solar (drawn from solar panels on the island's buildings), wind and biogas, and possibly also tidal energy."
In a similar vein, land once considered blight in many locations is now being seriously considered as development. This is not just due to economics, but a realization that people are shifting back to urban living - and that these areas can be vital contributors to this urban livability. There are also incentives due to the availability of infrastructure to reduce costs. A good trend, We have to be careful what is actually in-filled sometimes in this trend to look at marginal lands. A NY Times article discusses some new developments on the eastern seaboard, with a variety of successes:
"Former eyesores are being reinvented as large retail properties, with anchor stores like Home Depot or Target. One factor behind this trend has been a state incentive program that just had its 10th birthday, said Paul D. Cohen, a broker at CB Richard Ellis who recently became head of the firm’s new group specializing in redeveloping New Jersey’s brownfields... The Brownfield Reimbursement Program, which the state created in 1998, allows developers to recoup 75 percent of the costs they incur for the environmental cleanup of brownfields."
:: remove a brownfield, get one of these - image via NY Times
While remediation and opportunity has opened up the potential for profitable redevelopment of brownfield sites around the country - as well as to look to infill development to reduce sprawl - development of big box power centers and other land-intensive development merely shifts the impact from one of a site-specific blight to a pattern of economics and social fabric that is not sustainable as well. It may be a lesser evil, but at best a baby step in the right direction. This trend could shift as big-box stores such as Wal-Mart strive for more sustainable practices - even if the only 'green' they want is money.
I will end this rambling about many divergent/convergent subjects, with a simple 4/4 up-beat. Things are definitely looking up, both in the media, as well as in though and action. To bestow a well deserved one-year blogday gift, I'll leave with a quote from The Where, always searching for positivity and hope in our somewhat crazy world:
"As we step into this new Urban Age, those of us arguing for the City As Solution must focus on the joie de vivre urbaine. For cities to reach their full potential as engines for change, the urban chorus will need to grow louder and brighter. The masses should be reminded of the joys and conveniences of living in vibrant, eqitable urban neighborhoods, not guilt-tripped out of their McMansions and driven into gentrifying neighborhoods to exacerbate socioeconomic inequality. Only when a person believes that they will enjoy something -- and that they deserve to -- will they make a real effort to change their way of life."
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Eco-Planning: Squared
Some interesting new ecologically planning community examples via the wire(s), pushing the boundaries of what is possible on a large-scale, as well as looking at new opportunities for redevelopment of polluted or marginal lands. Overall these offer some interesting precedents to round out the previous examples on L+U. A trio of recent examples by (one from BIG and 2 from Koolhaas/OMA) take a firmly rectilinear view of new developments in three cities.
Holbæk Kasba
The initial look, via Archidose, at Holbæk Kasba in Denmark elicited the 'what is up with all of the squares???'. On the heels of Foster's Masdar City plan, another group of projects that generated a response that I am sure is shared by many. Not that there is a lack of examples of planning from all shapes and sizes in the built world, but it definitely seems like a trend to the square at least in recent times.
:: images via Archidose
The project involves development of a waterfront residential zone with 145,000 sf of 2 and 3br units. While using the grid as a primary tool, the plan evolved somewhat into an interlocking pattern of spaces. Via Archidose: "BIG started with a generic grid of equal-sized plots of consistent height, "a dense and low kasbah of dwellings that have been twisted and turned thus creating a labyrinth of small open spaces and hiding places for life, play and socializing between the houses." This consideration of the space between buildings -- clearly more interesting in the modified plan than the generic grid -- is something Jan Gehl would definitely appreciate."
This development creates some interesting circulation and open space patterns, but is once again seemingly forced upon a piece of land with no reference to anything existing. Perhaps it due to infill, where waterfront development increasingly is slated on land that is artificially created (or buildings are developed to float). The other issue with this is some of the monotony that is derived from an admittedly striking pattern. How does one actually feel when in these spaces, both as an inhabitant or visitor? The square, it seems, offers interesting options but perhaps some unecessary constraints.
:: images via Archidose
Dubai Waterfront Plan
A recently unveiled project from Rem Koolhaas and OMA for Dubai has generated much attention, more for the giant death star or shaped building rather than the overall composition or plan. Dubai is the epicenter of architectural expression - covered extensively with many visuals in Designboom recently as well. So it is not surprising that another square form shows up in the middle of Dubai Waterfront, via this plan.
:: image via Treehugger
Via Archinect quoting the NY Times, this modest "...1.5-billion-square-foot Waterfront City in Dubai would simulate the density of Manhattan on an artificial island just off the Persian Gulf. A mix of nondescript towers and occasional bold architectural statements, it would establish Dubai as a center of urban experimentation as well as one of the world’s fastest growing metropolises."
The best coverage comes via Eikongraphia, always on top of the symbolism of design strategies - this time likening it to the formal layout of Roman cities: "It has strictly square plots in a strictly square layout, with a ‘defense’ something around it in the shape of water and four entry points. More importantly: the grid is punctuated by monuments (icons). All exactly like the Romans designed their cities."
:: images via Eikongraphia
The scale of development in Dubai is astronomical, and quite mad in terms of what has been proposed, not just in buildings but in giant-scale. The use of square in this case is counterpoint to some of the symbolic excess at work within the waterfront fringe. Again Eikongraphia: "What I like about the plan of OMA is that it uses water to draw a square in the desert landscape of Dubai. At a much larger scale this strategy could provide a serious counterpart for the land-art of the Palm-islands, The World, Waterfront, and The Universe."
:: image via Eikongraphia
Ras Al Khaimah Eco-City
Finally, the most similar plan to Masdar in form and context, is the Ras Al Khaimah’s Eco City in the United Arab Emirates. From Inhabitat, the project has similar lofty ecological goals such as: "...Cutting-edge solar technology will power the 1.2 million square meter city, built using locally-sourced Arabian materials and aesthetic styles to support the city’s overall ethos of sustainability."
:: images via Inhabitat
Although it's difficult to detect in visuals, Inhabitat reports that "...cunning planning means that the least amount of direct sunlight will strike the city’s buildings during the warmest times of day. Lots of narrow streets and open green spaces have also been incorporated to increase natural lighting, shading and resident happiness."
It makes sense, as lack of context and variation of topography and setting make it possible to apply a very stringent plan of forms that could create a particularly well calculated environment. The closeup seems to offer some interesting microclimates due to open space and building forms.
:: image via Inhabitat
It too seems to have a death star of it's own, which is set to become a signature element (I say this with a hope for some alternative). Perhaps with all of that square-ness, a sphere is just the contrast you need. Either way it does give these developments some Star Wars qualities, so I guess a futuristic scenario should be green, right?
:: image via Inhabitat
The question of viability of these square scenarios is worth exploring further - and of course it will interesting to see how they all go in the ground. While the form of a city is one aspect of the experience - it does seem to have significant impacts on the overall layout and performance. Will squares make good communities - applied as they are in ways that defy organic laws? Or in the lack of real context, does anything go?
The use of pure form in design is commonplace. In planning, the scale and implementation of form makes adhering to a strict geometric more difficult (look at the US Public Land Survey System as an example). When delving into ecological planning, the response to topography, geology, hydrology and natural systems requires some additional flexibility in form. It's bad enough to restrict ecological systems to politically defined property lines. To add more constraint through imposition of a perfect square, we become slaves to the grid, and may miss potential opportunities to overlay nature in meaningful ways, as well as to create places of mystery and interest for the eventual users.
Burning Down the House
The Pacific Northwest has no shortage of eco-saboteurs in the midst, doing innocuous pranks that make us aware of some outstanding issues or going further and relying on major destruction to get their point across. This hit home recently with the torching of McMansions in a new Woodinville, Washington rural cluster development (RCD). I'm a big fan of statements like harmless culture-jamming, critical mass rides, and an occasional billboard liberation but tend to draw the line where people and property is seriously damaged. I think for some, it's a cop-out - for others it's jobs, livelihood, etc. For the most part the most damage is to the environmental causes that are espoused by groups such as this to make such striking gestures. It's self-defeating.
:: image via Treehugger
There were some interesting reactions, such as people defending the green-ness of the houses, chastising the arsonists for the environmental degradation in pollution and wasted water due to firefighting, conjuring up conspiracy theories about insurance claims due to the poor home sales - and of course that most damning of all terms - to label them terrorists. I'm staying out of that debate, but want to comment on terminology such as the t-word, as I think the term is overused and counterproductive, much like s-word of sustainability.
I do think that whatever you call it (terrorism, activism) - actions by people that feel disempowered by a society or situation reacting negatively with violence is counterproductive as well. Both sides need to find common ground and address the root cause of the issue - not point blame and righteousness at the opposing view. Damning or destroying without thinking, listening, and striving for positive dialogue is negligent and ignorant.
So the environmental debate: For starters, the houses in question were varied shades of green, certified by the Seattle Built Green program. Were they perfectly green? No. Were they better than what is required by the market and the codes. Yes. The question of size is an issue as well - with a healthy debate as to whether a 4000+ s.f. house can be green at all. My initial thought is yes - if you want, you can make anything - like a large building, community and urban city be green. It's a question of cumulative impact. If we all lived in large houses, we would be magnifying our impact manifold and causing significant degradation. Should we build this big? I'd say no. But it's not for me to decide. So perhaps it's good that only a select few of us perhaps want to (or more likely can) build on this scale.
This all being said, I tend to make my livelihood by designing things that people want and are willing to pay for. Landscape architecture as a luxury item perhaps is finally becoming passe, but there is still some lingering traces of it perceived as not being a necessity. The tie of the work with nature is a good step to credibility, and the trend to green design is important to expand it beyond landscaping and make it just as vital to lessening our ecological footprint than driving hybrids and taking the bus - perhaps more. The market, for good and bad, determine what is built and offered to the customers by the suppliers. Target one thing and you miss the myriad others that are just as impacting. Look at the big picture and you lose the focus on any particular issue.
Street of Dreams is a marketing tool - just like any green development strategy or environmental slogan. While applauding excess with some added green features is questionable, it fits into the general strategy of tending to get a little bit better incrementally (this by no means equals good - but to the chagrin of Mcdonough et.al., perhaps less bad). These approaches will not change overnight, but are evolving, through LEED, as well as some other examples that range from perhaps overly stringent to potentially greenwash, and there is not really any objective body that is parsing these shades of green.
The real question for me is directed at the trend for large-house suburban development in general. A story in The Atlantic offered some insight to the trend towards urban living - and what this means to the suburban mega-housing in general:
"Pent-up demand for urban living is evident in housing prices. Twenty years ago, urban housing was a bargain in most central cities. Today, it carries an enormous price premium. Per square foot, urban residential neighborhood space goes for 40 percent to 200 percent more than traditional suburban space in areas as diverse as New York City; Portland, Oregon; Seattle; and Washington, D.C."
"This future is not likely to wear well on suburban housing. Many of the inner-city neighborhoods that began their decline in the 1960s consisted of sturdily built, turn-of-the-century row houses, tough enough to withstand being broken up into apartments, and requiring relatively little upkeep. By comparison, modern suburban houses, even high-end McMansions, are cheaply built. Hollow doors and wallboard are less durable than solid-oak doors and lath-and-plaster walls. The plywood floors that lurk under wood veneers or carpeting tend to break up and warp as the glue that holds the wood together dries out; asphalt-shingle roofs typically need replacing after 10 years. Many recently built houses take what structural integrity they have from drywall—their thin wooden frames are too flimsy to hold the houses up."
Maybe in the future, Street of Dreams will evolve to encompass more of the diversity and variety that is reflective of society and our varied habitation in general. Green McMansions may avoid the above fate due to better materials and construction, this is true. But that might not be enough. The Street of Dreams may be one where the houses are built to last for 100 years, or consist of green renovations, dense urban living, or smaller footprint development models that can accomodate our needs and protect ecosystems. That sounds like a dream, and a potentially fire-proof one at that.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Veg.itecture @ 16
I may have finally tapped out the well in creative titles for Vegetated Architecture. A few times warrant some more significant coverage of one project, but for the most part the groups are a someone random assortment of projects that are given a little thread of narrative to tie them loosely together. There have been more sporadic posts with similar content - as well as the wildly popular Veg.itect series featuring Nouvel, Yeang, and Sharp will continue as is - many more firms to cover on that list.
:: Brion Tomb, Carlo Scarpa - image via East Coast Architecture Review
It's time to lay the witticisms to rest. So here's the total list to date... a brief eulogy perhaps... and some fond memories.
1. Tasty Building/Landscape Fusions
2. Vegetated Architecture
3. New Additions
4. Super-Sized
5. Small(er)-Scale
6. Photo Gallery
7. Defining Moments
8. More New Additions
9. Building Edges
10. Caixa Forum Madrid
11. Queens Botanical Garden Visitor's Center
12. S,M,L,XL
13. Curly + Folded
14. Flat + Graceful
15. World Tour
16. Photo Gallery 2
Part due laziness, part sheer simplicity... I'm adopting the long-standing concept of numerically ordered series. I searched back through the previous posts, and decided that there were a critical enough mass of solid posts in the true spirit of veg.itecture - so this one would begin the next post with a new thread - picking up on sweet number sixteen so the next one will be... oh, you know.
Also, I did barely begin to sort my collected imagery on the Landscape+Urbanism Image Gallery - which is starting to take the shape of a wonderful cross section of many themes... check them out, and send me anything with a smidgen of greenery you find out there in the ether.
Landscape Architecture without LAs
A recent reference on Treehugger pointed me to Bernard Rudolfsky's 1964 book Architecture without Architects led me to direct this line of inquiry to the landscape profession. Rudolfsky reconnected building with the stability of traditional, 'non-pedigreed', design (quoted via Treehugger): "...vernacular architecture does not go through fashion cycles. It is nearly immutable, indeed, unimprovable, since it serves its purpose to perfection." 
:: image via Treehugger
There has definitely been a long history of writings on traditional habitation in the architectural sense. There is also a good deal of scholarship associated with the indigenous and non-designed landscapes throughout history. This encompasses historical landscape interventions, but also our more recent cultural leanings towards shaping our spaces.
When the topic of the vernacular landscape comes up, I immediately turn to the writings of J.B. Jackson, who defined the concept in relation to the field of landscape architecture for many, including myself. The seminal tome, from 1984, is obviously 'Discovering the Vernacular Landscape' which in classic Jackson style is imminently readable with a subtle depth. Always a pleasure to dig through notes of Jackson, I've unearthed some of the gems (and trust me, there are a LOT of gems):
:: image via Yale University Press
“Only very rarely is there a glimpse of the history of the landscape itself, how it was formed, how it has changed, and who it was who changed it, and even more rarely does landscape research produce any speculation about the nature of the American landscape.” (p. xi)
“Change in itself is not out of the ordinary; every cultural landscape has evolved, sometimes violently, more often slowly, over the centuries. What differs here is that we are able to watch the transformation as it takes place; able to record it and even to understand some of its signs.” (p.67)
Touching back on the Vernacular, in this case focussed on dwelling, in a chapter in the book, should be required reading for anyone who utters the term. One poignant concept is that of labelling versue truth, particular of 'vernacular': "This definition is largely the product of architects and architectural historians, hence the emphasis on form and building techniques and the relative neglect of function or of the relationships to work and community." (p. 85)
Jackson further continues, lamenting the current environmental design: "Compared to traditional, pretechnological dwellings ours are spiritually and culturally impoverished. Our almost uncontrollable love of making ‘environments’ – never stronger than now – compels us to create in our houses as well as in our cities environments almost entirely without content.” (p.87)
Finally, in this summary and the book itself, an essay entitled 'Concluding with Landscapes': "The greater the number of landscapes I explored, the more it seemed that they all had traits in common and that the essence of each was not its uniqueness but its similarity to others. It occurred to me that there might be such a thing as a prototypal landscape, or more precisely landscape as a primordial idea, of which all these visible landscapes were merely so many imperfect manifestations." (p.147)
And the meat of some of Jackson's theory, consisting of Landscapes One, Two, and Three, which form an evolution of thinking and interpretation of the vernacular. Landscape One being essentially the medieval landscape which is formed by intermingling of spaces and forms without particular organizational qualities. Landscape Two, or the Renaissance, consists of single purposed designed landscapes and "... sets great score on visibility; that is why we have that seventeenth-century definition of landscape as ‘a vista or view of scenery of the land’ – landscape as a work of art, as a kind of supergarden.” (p.152)
Landscape Three is the emphemeral 'place' we discuss and strive for, requiring not just space but the connection to humanity: "…to a far greater degree, we derive our identity from our relationship with other people, and when we talk about the importance of place, the necessity of belonging to a place, let us be clear that in Landscape Three place means the people in it, not simply the natural environment.” (p.155)
I could go on for volumes - but it's better to read for oneself, and I would encourage looking at all of the writings, which are still fresha and relevant. The concept of Landscape Two consists of our cultural need for 'objects' still gets in the way of our creation of 'places'. While the two are not mutually exclusive, they rarely come together as planned by the designer.
A companion later work of Jackson is 'A Sense of Time, A Sense of Place' published in 1994, (he died in 1996) which delves into historical roles of landscape. In Jackson's typical note of positivity, he ends the preface not with dispair, but a sense of hope in this reconnection with our past: "In time, we will find our way and rediscover the role of architecture and man-made forms in creating a new civilized landscape. It is essentially a question of rediscovering symbols and believing in them once again." (p.viii)
This work investigates, amongst other things (via Amazon): "...time and movement rather than place and permanence, Jackson examines the new vernacular landscape of trailers, parking lots, roads, and shopping malls, and traces the development of dwellings in New Mexico from prehistoric pueblo villages to mobile homes."
It reminds me of newer investigations into cultural ephemera, such as the fantastic essays in 'Blue Monday', specifically the site:nonsite:quartzsite project and the annual migration and inhabitation of the City of Quartzite, Arizona during the Gem Festival. Somehow I feel as if AUDC's founders Varnelis and Sumrell have taken Jackson's spirit of the vernacular in action - and reinvigorated it to a new crowd of landscape theorists and designers.
:: Quartzsite, Arizona - image via BLDGBLOG
Another resource is the collection edited by Paul Groth and Todd W. Bresi, entitled 'Understanding Ordinary Landscapes', a cultural geographers view of landscapes - with a "...focus on the history of how people have used everyday space – buildings, rooms, streets, fields, or yards – to establish their identity, articulate their social relations, and derive cultural meaning.”
One of my favorite quotes is via geographer Pierce Lewis (in Groth & Bresi, p.4-5): "...'If we want to understand ourselves, we would do well to take a searching look at landscapes.' The human landscape is an appropriate source of self-knowledge, according to Lewis, because it is '...our unwitting autobiography, reflecting our tastes, our values, our aspirations, even our fears.'"
This is further expanded to design and personal taste in the work of one of my heroes, Joan Nassauer, and the work on the aesthetics of ecological design, most notably the work in Placing Nature: Culture and Landscape Ecology, and the perhaps even more influential essay from Landscape Journal: "Messy Ecosystems, Orderly Frames," which posits that ordinary views and attitudes towards landscapes have strong impacts on the success and failure of ecological design - and that there must be knowledge and application of these ideas by designers in order to meet people's aesthetic expectations.
The recent Walker Art Center show of the New Suburban Landscape reinforced these ideas as well - tying our cultural baggage to the ways in which we continue to degrade ourselves and the land. Returning to Jackson for a second, a quote via Wikipedia reinforces this thought process: "The older I grow and the longer I look at landscapes and seek to understand them, the more convinced I am that their beauty is not simply an aspect but their very essence and that that beauty derives from the human presence."
:: Angela Strassheim (Untitled) - image via Walker Art Center
The concept of 'vernacular' encompasses not only our interpretation of landscape, but serves as a differentiator for design. From an oft-quoted National Park Service study, referenced in a document from California DOT, regarding Identification of Historic Landscapes:
"In the early 1980s, the National Park Service identified four types of historic landscapes: sites, vernacular landscapes, ethnographic landscapes, and designed landscapes. For the purposes of cultural resources survey identification, landscapes can now be divided more simply into two basic types: designed (consciously created to reflect a design theory or aesthetic style) or vernacular (developed or evolved through function or use), by answering the question of why a landscape looks as it does. Sites and ethnographic landscapes can be identified as a subset of either a vernacular or a designed landscape."
This differentiation of designed and vernacular is the crux of any conversation on the issue. The issue with landscape versus architecture is that it is much more difficult to discern the style and substance in landscape, as it is caught in the paradox of using the same materials in which it is referencing. A building is taking materials (both natural and man-made) and applying them in formalistic ways. Landscape is more subtle, with varying degrees of legibility and comprehension (or even base understanding that things landscape don't necessarily mean 'nature').
:: Designed Nature, Back Bay Fens - image via Wikipedia
The other side of the vernacular that differs somewhat from architecture, is the relative safety of 'gardening' and 'landscape' - and the fact that most people feel comfortable tackling these outdoor design and construction - with varying results (i.e. the good, bad, and ugly). Few would stretch to build a house without an expert, whether that is an architect or more likely a builder. How many of these people don't hesitate to manipulate the earth and ecology without expertise or even a horticulturist?
From the Rooftop: Varietals
Along with walls, rooftops are the logical frontier of landscape intervention, and although many terms are thrown around to both tantalize and confuse the novice and expert alike. For instance, you will notice my own use of the terms 'ecoroof' and 'green roof' almost interchangably. In my mind they are the same, although 'eco-' is the moniker used here in Portland to describe the 'functional' direction, mostly driven by local green roof pioneer, Tom Liptan. The idea being that a green roof has plants and is not specifically directed towards a sustainable ends, whereas an ecoroof is designed a maintained as a low-input, low-maintenance functional roof.
Here we investigate some of the typologies and terms in rooftop greening, from the eco- to the green-, the terrace- to the garden-, and the blue- to the brown-.
Eco-While eco- is one of those terms like sustainability that tends to be overused to the point of being meaningless, in this case we will differentiate between the eco- and the green- in terms of the type of vegetation that is used and the amount of maintenance that is required. I've worked on a number of these projects, and they range from small-scale residential 200-700sf to large public buildings, 15000-18000sf, most notably the Portland Building Ecoroof (when I was working at Macdonald Environmental Planning).
:: image via Architectural Record
:: image via Greenroofs.com
A Chicago project featured in the NY Times uses green roof trays to vegetate the rooftop. A simple and adaptable way of providing greenery in a contained system, trays typically cost more than regular contiguous systems. Benefits include the ability to remove trays for maintenance, as well as eliminating the need for edging around rooftop penetrations.
:: image via NY Times
Green-
I would define 'green' roof as the typical application that is shown on the rooftops in projects featured on this site. There are obvious distinctions in plant materials, water use, and maintenance - but when applied for any sort of decorative benefit, the eco- often has to give way to the merely green. It can range from the simple:
:: image via Inhabitat
:: image via Inhabitat
To something more American pastoral (oddly enough, this one from Brazil, so maybe South American)...
:: image via Inhabitat
This is not to say a 'green' roof with high levels of aesthetics is not sustainable - it's just a different (and I will admit very regional) subtlety. But enough splitting hairs. The distinction may also provide some clarity to the difference between extensive and intensive green roofs. Definitions vary wildly, but extensive is typically 2-6" and intensive ranges from 6-18" in depth. The Chicago City Hall Green Roof is an excellent example, with landform created using rigid styrofoam blocking as well to reduce weight.
:: image via Time
Some interim amount of access is possible, such as the ASLA Headquarters Green Roof, in Washington, D.C. - which, if you have the means for that pricetag, I would highly recommend it:
:: image via ASLA
When additional potential habitation is added via paving, planters, more significant vegetation, and furnishings the transition is complete to the roof terrace.
:: image via Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture
:: image via My Landscapes
It's really interesting to see how far we've come, and still how far we have yet to come. Case in point, a recent Treehugger missive about green roofs was so incredibly over-simplified as to be practically useless... which is fine, but this isn't 2001 and the misinformation included was pretty striking. I know, i know, relax - it's good for the industry as a whole, right? One choice cuts - with some great generalized BS, of which I will reserve comment, other than to say, what?:
"At the same time, as Terry explained, condo buildings aren’t really viable when it comes to green roofs because they are too high up and it wouldn’t be of any benefit. The wind and the temperature change every 6 stories, so the taller the building, the less likely your chances of having an effective rooftop garden..."
Garden-
Garden roofs are pretty self-explanatory - using the rooftop for urban agriculture productions. There are a countless examples of how you do this, covered previously on L+U. The biggest obstacle to rooftop agriculture is obviously the additional weight. Where eco- and green- roof are developed for low saturated weights, and rooftop terraces - although heavier, can be point loaded or use engineered soils for lower weights. Gardening, by it's very nature, is more dependent on water and organic matter to promote significant annual biomass - and this requires more weight.
:: St. Petersburg Rooftop Garden - image via Hands On
:: Fairmount Waterfront Hotel Garden Roof - image via Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
The future challenges for rooftop agriculture is the issue of weight, access, and water use. Fine tuning all of these factors will allow us to maximize production per rooftop square footage. Can you grow vegetables in 6" of soil - or with low amounts of organic matter? These questions will refine and define the next phases of rooftop urban ag production.
Blue-
I'll admit I've always thought the concept blue roofs are kinda strange. Information is sketchy, but the idea is that water is applied - either through ponding or spraying - to the rooftop for a variety of reasons. In our moist climate, the water is held on the roof for detention purposes. Another strategy is to spray or hold water on the roof for cooling - then use this for secondary means.
A concept via Wikipedia: "...a rooftop waterplay area in which water runoff is used to irrigate a green roof, or to cool the roof of a building on hot days, in order to eliminate or at least reduce the HVAC load placed on mechanical refrigeration equipment." The concept is to replicate or create a rooftop version of an urban beach or Urbeach. One notable example is on Dundas Street in Toronto,
:: Rooftop water/pv panels - image via Wikipedia
I do get the concept but can't for the life of me see how water is the most efficient way of aiding in cooling vs. other means. An example from Stanford explains some of the benefits. Via Inhabitat, The Global Ecology Research Building is one version of this system that uses irrigation pop-up spray heads to throw water on the rooftop surface. From the post:
"One of the most interesting and innovative systems introduced to the building was the use of a hydronic system to cool down the the building. The process works like this: water is sprayed thinly on the roof at night. During the coolness of the night, the water is chilled as it runs down the roof loosing heat to the night sky. It is then stored into a highly insulated water tank, where it is later used for the cooling system of the building during the day providing an energy saving of around 90% from that of a typical chilled water system."
:: image via Inhabitat
Brown-
Counter to the 'green' trend is the inventive concept of brown roofs. Using urban nature as a guide. From an article in Green Futures: "...Brownfield sites are the black redstart's favourite haunts, and it colonised bomb sites after the war... birdwatchers are hoping that the current wave of redevelopment and the survival of the species can go hand-inhand. It's the rubble from rundown plots of land that contains the seeds and stones these birds need for their habitat. Take some of that rubble and put it on the roof, says Gedge, and you can then let nature take its course."
:: Black Redstart - image via Unicorn Grocery
A few projects have started to appear, one recent project covered here on the Cremorne Riverside Centre in London, as well as some notable projects in Manchester, offering a new aesthetic to the mix:
:: image via Blackredstarts.org
Manchester's Unicorn Grocery has a rooftop habitat for this local London endangered bird species as well, continuing the trend on a smaller scale.
:: images via Unicorn Grocery
Whatever the goal and whatever the opportunity that exists - rooftops are ripe for multi-functional uses - from greening, ecology, cooling, habitat, and food production. Each have their different needs and benefits - and the ability to maximize the functions of rooftops for these multiple benefits is the next step for rooftop development in Vegetated Architecture.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Inhabitat: Façadism
I love new (or old) terms that are evocative of the changing face of architecture. A post in Adaptive Reuse dropped the term facadism, which was new to me. Wikipedia explains: "Façadism (also façadism or façadomy) is the practice of renovating old buildings leaving the facade of a building intact while demolishing and rebuilding its innards." So a new one - and let's couple it with our trend for veg.itecture.
Call it what you will: mur vegetal, elevated landscape, vertical gardens, living walls, green screen... or vegetated façadism. It means a whole new wave of landscape+urbanism. Some old, some new - it's a whole new architecture. All of these links are via Inhabitat over a span of a couple of years.
First, one that appeared today was a nice subtle and sweet intervention by Edina Tokodi - on a project: "...by SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) to encourage Philadelphia’s commuters to ‘Go Green’ with her navigable moss icons and green walls in the East Market Station’s passenger service area, ticketing area, and on the exterior of the station building and Transportation Museum. The initiative is part of SEPTA’s mission to help commuters become more aware of the positive environmental impact of using mass transit regularly."
An old favorite, and one of the pinnacles of façadism is of course Musee de Quai Branly, by the illustrious Mr. Blanc. I did find a great interview via PingMag as well with some great examples of his work. This has been exposed often - but never seems to get old - pure, unadulterated green facadism. Via Inhabitat, from January 2007: "The three-part system consists of a PVC layer, felt, and metal frame, providing a soil-free self-supporting system light enough to be hung on the wall, and even suspended in the air, weighing in at less than 30 kilograms per square meter."
I've seen a couple of version of this idea - but really like it in a way. From Inhabitat, June 2007: "...Joost Bakker’s Schiavello Vertical Gardens. The steel-frame interior plant system was designed on a grid that allows numerous plants to be stacked vertically in columns or walls..."
Paul Kephardt and Rana Creek have some great projects under their belt, as well as a elegant metal walls via Inhabitat, March 2006. "The vertical facades grow succulents and other plants through beautifully cut surfaces. Initially, the panels sit flat to allow the roots to settle with gravity, then gradually get raised to vertical and the plants continue to grow through the openings in the metal. They... would be beautiful works of art even without the greenery popping through. The one pictured here was meant to convey a sense that the plants had strength enough to bend the metal outward as they forced their way through."
Spanning the gap between vegetated architecture and urban ag - a project recently posted on Inhabitat from February (although covered last fall quite extensively). And adds another term as well: "...Agro-Housing tackles the looming statistics with a high-rise apartment complex concept that incorporates a vertical greenhouse, creating compact homes that also enable families to grow their own organic produce."
Another ag-related model (previously shown) is from London - resulting in a pretty stunning form. It also presented the nerd-word from Sim-City: "... Arcology, that is, a self sustainable building, capable of providing food, water, and energy to the inhabitants of the complex."
A similar, non-agricultural and well-designed Canadian example from December 2007: "The design calls for the use of geothermal combined with thermal accumulators for cooling and heating, recycling industrial containers to be used in the building’s structure, bicycles facilities, and even an interior wall garden to filter the air inside the building."
Green Shutter from March 2006 is a small-scale, add-on version for vegetation: "A hanging garden of sorts, the Green Shutter takes on full function as a shutter when the vines from the planter box at the base wind up and around the horizontal trellis. When the greenery covers the entire area, it acts as a lush privacy screen, insulator and heat barrier." Multiply by all the windows, you've got facadism."
We've featured some of the representational designs for the greening of the rebuilt New Orleans. A September 2006 post includes more façadism at work, first the "...ShotgunLOFT design, entered by Schwartz Architecture... utitilizes modular prefab elements for sustainable cost-efficiency, and copious greenery with orchards and planted trellises to reduce the increased heat from the sun."
Landscape Urbanism at Shelby Farms
The announcement for the Shelby Farms competition was forwarded to the firm I work for a mere couple of weeks before the due date, which was disappointing as it seemed like a great one. Judging from the finalists, we were not wrong, with strong submittals from Field Operations, Hargreaves Associates, and Tom Leader Studio. Here's some brief narrative excerpt and the boards (all images via Shelby Farms Park Conservancy):
field operations:
"Shelby Farms Park is already today an amazing reserve of public parkland and amenity. It’s huge scale offers an extraordinary resource for people who are interested in large-scale recreation activities – strolling, jogging, cycling, roller-blading, picnicking, dog walking, swimming, camping, horse-back riding, dog training, fishing, shooting, gardening and the like. It’s agricultural heritage is also a great resource for land husbandry practices, including farming, research, energy, education and markets.
"Our design vision amplifies these trends toward higher intensity and variety of uses. New entrances, pathways, plantings and facilities will shape a more defined and beautiful identity for the Park as a whole. In the center will be a magnificent new lake, three times the size of the current lake, supporting a wide range of non-motorized water sport activities. Twelve distinctive landscapes will each support certain uses and activities, allowing a coherent “place” structure for the many varied user groups set within a larger Park setting.
"Continuing the agricultural heritage of the site, the new Park becomes a large-scale public place of cultivation, growth, production, health and wellbeing (as in a sports farm, an arts farm, a culture farm, an energy farm, a tree farm, as well as the more familiar land husbandry farm). In this way, traditional land practices are hybridized with 21st-century health and recreation uses – a new ecology of place."
Hargreaves Associates:
"Shelby Farms can be a GREAT LARGE PARK - a park of significance for all of Memphis and its surrounding region, serving as a recreational and cultural destination while allowing citizens to discover a renewed relationship with natural systems, agricultural heritage, and outstanding scenery. It is an opportunity unparalleled in any other city: 4500 acres dedicated to a park at the heart of the Shelby County, accessible to downtown Memphis, and at the nexus of the Wolf River Greenway and the future CSX rails to trails.
We have approached the site by examining the site-specific qualities that make it a beloved destination today: expansive fields, sweeping views, spectacular sunsets, rolling hills, nestled lakes, extensive walking trails, equestrian trails and events, farm lands, hands-on learning about agriculture and nature, a country drive, and bottomland forests. There is much at Shelby Farms Park to be discovered. We have integrated those elements by creating a multi-layered design that intertwines the various existing areas of the park. A network of landscape and movement systems provides for recreation and access by foot, by bike, by horse, by shuttle...and by boat. A system of beautiful lakes that reflect the memorable Memphis sky allows a connection to the river - both real and metaphorical as well as a whole new movement system on the site - and the park's new name: Shelby Lakes Park."
Tom Leader Studio:
"All you have to do is read the name. The history of farming is the most useful way of thinking when looking toward the future of Shelby Farms Park. This is a huge piece of land that has been in the process of breaking down into 3 or 4 separate domains. Due to the size and available resources, the only viable strategy for creating a singular park is to work closely and dramatically in partnership with nature. That’s what farmers do – they closely study the soil, climate, hydrology, transport, market, and come up with a plan for cultivation that builds on the best aspects of their land. This is a plan for cultivating a very big park. This is how you grow Memphis.
"What does that mean? It means we have introduced a whole series of crops that are not literally corn or soybeans but things that address some current issues in the city. For example, health and fitness - howto reverse the trend toward obesity and type 2 diabetes? By developing a substantial local organic farm, restaurant, and sustainable food scene where little currently exists - spawning a whole new green industry. By greatly expanding enjoyable ways to get exercise – swimming, canoeing, trail running, hiking over a vast network. By harvesting enough solar energy to take the park off the grid. By creating a home for the native Memphis music scene – a place where local bands and musicians can gather, find studio space, find a ready-made audience on a big lake with a beach, a place for performance at all scales. These and several other important “crops” for Memphis are what we want to grow here at Shelby Farms Park."
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Veg.itecture: Photo Gallery 2
After spending a solid 12 hour day up and back to Seattle, I'm ready for a quick and easy post. Following up on my recent combing through of the backlog of Inhabitat links, which unearthed a bevy of great stuff related to Vegetated Architecture and more, with more to come.
This reminded me that a month or so back, I posted a string of project photos, via the Archinect Image Gallery and now it's time for round two, because I could zone out and look at cool pics. There are literally thousands of images, so this is definitely a nice cross-section. As I imagined, there is a lot more vegetation on some of the unbuilt/visionary projects - partly because of practicality, partly because of the new green wave that has splashed upon architecture with a verdant thud. Previously, I focussed on the 'built works' so this time I will delve into some other locales such as 'unbuilt' (all images via Archinect, with brief descriptions from website). 
:: Public Farm 1 Concept Illustration - Work Architecture
:: Aerospace Campus - FOA
:: tuananh nguyensy office - viet nam
:: Altana AG- Jourdan&Müller
:: unidentified rooftop terrace 
:: house near flood control dike
:: PV4all Absolute Green - Geotectura
:: the roots of skyscraper - competition entry
:: Aerial perspective of former 30 acre WalMart and strip mall converted to a sustainable agriculture and industry park, with support for the surrounding neighborhoods.- suburbanRenewal
:: Cadillac Center - practice of surface architecture
:: Venice Museum/Bridge - http://www.nebulousideas.com/
Wow, lots of good stuff... I only made it half way through the 'unbuilt' category - so much more to come. Enjoy the visual and vegetated inspiration.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Sharp & Diamond: Veg.itect
In a twist of singling out architects in the Vegetated Architecture realm, a profile of a landscape architecture firm that is pioneering the use of vertical greening techniques. The Vancouver firm Sharp & Diamond have been developing a number of North American examples, which is in dire need of good examples. I've been familiar with Randy Sharp from S+D since I heard him speak in Denver at GreenBuild 2006, in a session entitled 'Pushing the Envelope' where he discussed living walls.
I am also signed up to take a Living Walls 101 class offered by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities so I thought it a good opportunity to find out more about the work that Mr. Sharp and his firm are doing. From the S+D website bio, Sharp: "...has a passion for transforming urban environments and making sustainable methods visible. He has a deep knowledge of high performance building and landscape systems including permeable paving, ecosystem restoration, living walls and green roofs." Sounds like a Veg.itect to me.
This fits into a project profile for green roofs + living walls, from the website as well: "Vegetated building envelope systems moderate the microclimate of the neighbourhood and improve the comfort of building occupants. Green roofs provide shade, evaporative transpiration, rainwater harvesting, thermal mass and natural ventilation. Eco-effective technologies include extensive green roofs, rooftop gardens, green facades, living walls and urban trees."
A particularly interesting project was the Vancouver Aquarium, which was also featured in Architectural Record, specifically focussing on the 500-square-foot vegetated wall for the new building.
:: images via Architectural Record
A profile of the project and some more thumbnails is available at Greenroofs.com. Additionally, Greenline featured a story about the aquarium as well with some kinda fuzzy photos - the article is worth a perusal though. A quote from the article with some technical specs: "The green wall is approximately 3 meters by 15 meters and is estimated to include about 7,000 plants. Each plant is tucked into an individual container which are aggregated into a larger modular polypropylene unit. The units are then attached to the concrete substructure using a system of wall mounted steel braces. It is important to note that most green walls are designed as lattice or trellis where the plants are allowed to grow up the facade. This installation is very different because the planting medium is actually hung off of the wall and includes irrigation."
For a project dubbed North America's First permanent Living Wall - someone needs to work on the PR for this project (and the quality and availability of photos)... The firm has worked on some other rooftop greening projects in Canada as well, including the Sechelt RCMP Justice Building, and the Burnside Gorge Green Roof in Victoria.
:: Sechelt Justice Building - image via GVRD
Overall, it's interesting to see the firm's overall bio, which makes a point of incorporating vegetated architecture into it's structure. Again from the website, Sharp & Diamond: "...provides a diversity of consultative services ranging from landscape architecture, site planning, urban design and construction administration to LEED® documentation and ecological design design for stormwater, green roofs and living walls."
I am definitely looking forward to the seminar... and perhaps stumbling upon a few more images.
Inhabitat: Green the Tower
For those who have not had the opportunity to visit the site Inhabitat - do so immediately. I have to remember to check it periodically to see what's new, as it had been until recently devoid of RSS feed (and one million thank you's for that finally). Due to my lax visitation, I often am bombarded with many great posts that encompass many of the themes on this site, green design, eco-planning, vegetated architecture and urban agriculture. Recently, I spent some quality time Inhabitat-ing the site and skimmed a crop of the wild to the the green to the just, plain, cool. A multi-part series of projects, the first focussed on towers... and wow, here they are:
“Rethinking Towers In The Park,” the Seoul Commune 2026 project by Mass Studies offers a wild program, quoted via Inhabitat as: "...an investigation into the viability of future sustainable community structures in dense metropolitan areas. The organically-shaped towers take the classic architectural idea of towers in the park, and literally turn the park into the towers themselves, offering a cheeky yet profoundly sustainable and forward-thinking solution to community development."
:: images via Inhabitat
Similar in scale, but much less refined and a bit more restrained in aesthetics is a the mixed-use tower in London, by firm Popularchitecture, a visionary project aimed at a structure that is: "...a full mile tall and housing over 100,000 people... a cool, uber-green concept. With 500 floors would contain schools and hospitals to shops and pubs, and everything else under the sun... At the center of the structure would be a ‘vast internal void’ lit by circular openings every 20 storys. Each of these ‘holes’ would be used as either public squares or for specialist activities such as ice skating, botanic gardens or swimming pools."
:: images via Inhabitat
There are no shortage of visionary 'wow-factor' towers in the world, and someone at Inhabitat definitely makes a point of finding these and bringing them out to the masses. The 'Pile of Boxes' in Tianjin is no exception, with staggered rooftop spaces as well as a slicing rooftop garden and glass lightwell at lower levels. Designed by Atkins Design, the design offers these: "... sky-gardens in rotating corners of the glass blocks. The gardens will 'light up the corners of each tower, creating an illusion of glowing lanterns rising up into the sky.' Each of the buildings will also be crowned with mesh-like blocks that house vertical wind-powered turbines to help supply electricity."
:: images via Inhabitat
Continuing the skys-the-limit view of greenery, it's a vision of an already built project with some green applique. If Norman Foster's Gherkin in London isn't already iconic enough, perhaps a good dose of greenery can even take it to the next level. Landscape the phallus, now that's veg.itecture!
Via Inhabitat testing has begun on: "...an innovative vegetated facade panel which promises to change the face of building design forever. This new “Green wall” product, known as the Core Hydraulic Integrated Arboury panel, promises to bring the benefits of green roofs to any exterior surface of skyscraper... The panel works by obtaining moisture through the air and funneling through its specialized membrane properties allowing it to provide for enough water to allow for plant growth. The plants, mostly a mixture of lichens and grasses are expected to grow out of the panel and envelope the facade."
:: images via Inhabitat
Keep checking out Inhabitat for a wide range of green products, info, and projects - and check back here for future iterations of the some of the Vegetated Architecture in the back issues.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
The High Road, Pt. II - NYCs High Line
Those of us doing work on structure, this type of capacity is a dream. There are practical issues with access, safety, maintenance and other day-to-day usage, but the opportunity to realize something beyond mere thin-layer planting is definitely huge. This was realized in a 2003 Ideas Competition that garnered over 700 submissions. The views of the all the competition entries are availabe to view online still - which is the benefit of competition in being able to not just select a winning entry but to generate a wide range and catalog of ideas beyond the just finalists.
This process yielded designs from a bunch of heavy hitters in the landscape architecture and architectural fields. Four finalists were selected, with the winning entry from a team consisting of Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Olafur Eliasson, Piet Oudolf, and Buro Happold continuing on to implementation phase. Images of the overall plan:
The project is scheduled to open in Fall 2008, and is priming community development as well. A couple of recent project highlighted some of the adjacent development happening along the High Line - and taking advantage of the linear park. Frank Gehry's building for the InterActiveCorp Headquarters adjacent to the High Line and is a poignant example of some of the redevelopment potential.
The Highline, and it's predecessor in Paris, aim to restructure our relationship with urban form. By taking industrial remnants and reinvigorating them without destroying them - makes them modern partners in the new cityscape. The inclusion of landscape as a vital component of this combats the swaying into pure artistic or architectural gesture - as landscape, however artfully arranged, still has a softening potential in cities. The other aspect of the High Line is that is truly an expression of Landscape Urbanism principles that do not just exist in books or drawings - but will be realized and allowed to evolve in plain view of all to see.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Veg.itecture: World Tour
Vegetated Architecture seems to be a world-wide phenomenon... although there are slow-growing pools of recent US examples, the trend has evolved outside of the states as a significant part of the architectural vocabulary. A number of recent projects and terms (i.e. cybertecture) underscore this point and highlight the unprecedented customization and access to information we have. These all offer a range of greening, from the sprinkling on top to the significant vegetated statement - and the virtual world tour begins:
Staying put in Dubai (as there is lots to see) and continuing the work of James Law Cybertecture, two recent projects via World Architecture News. Not quite as malleable as the previous project, Megawave does allow many units to have ocean views via a crenulated facade and scissor-form layout. Quoted via WAN, with the "...intention of bringing the rhythm of a wave onto land."
:: image via WAN
Followed with formalistically similar Pixel Tower, "...Inspired by moving bubbles within a Champagne glass, the Pixel Tower is designed as a 21st Generation X tower for the young and trendy of Dubai."
:: image via WAN
Travel Interlude: Cybertecture
These projects, along with James Law got me thinking about the coining of the term 'Cybertecture'... which is somewhat Gibsonian in reference - so as we travel, let's discuss what this means, as I am a sucker for new term and concepts (read: adding Veg- to the from of any common architectural term). According to their website... "...the core Cybertecture vision of the world, in which the now and future world is designed and created inspired in a symbiotic balance between space and technology."
Continuing, a further explanation in we make money not art: "Cybertecture environments are hybrids designed from the inside out and they rely on technology to give the space intelligence needed to interact with its users. He created the concept in 2001." A fantastic post in Eikongraphia discusses the concept in relation to the firm's 'I-Pad' building, which is pretty much what it sounds like - a building that looks like a giant I-Pod. The concept of cybertecture quoted via Eikongraphia: "...means – according to the interiors he decorated until this project – installing a lot of colorful lamps, displays, interactivity, etc. The nineties are coming back, it seems."
I'm unsure if this is the complete definition, but came away much more educated. I wonder how the analog nature of growing physical live plants mesh with the precision of the digital realm of cybertecture... do they conflict or reinforce one another? I guess I am ready to take this concept into my destination... James Laws home base in Hong Kong.
Starchitecture in Hong Kong:
The severe angles of Libeskind are barely muted with the thin tracery of vegetation atop the Creative Media Center, built for the University of Hong Kong. A minute shrubby zone on the roof is public 'open space' with views of surrounding landscape, which is probably a fitting refugia for having to look at the building (I apologize, I'm still looking for a Libeskind that I like...)
:: images via The Design Blog
Nature in New Zealand
The Hingarae Residence and Resort, via Cool Hunter is more smooth and soft - nestled into the hillside form and elegantly radiused edges. Ok, so it's definitely elitist living and quite out of most normal people's price range - it is fine site planning and building/landscape interaction. No social commentary on this tour stop.
:: images via The Cool Hunter
Green in Göteborg
Some recent work by KjellgrenKaminsky Architecture a Swedish firm, was pointed out via Tropolism - and is one of 4 passive house designs the firm is unveiling. All are simple, with the Villa Atrium offering green roof and central atrium, which use thermal mass and passive techniques for heating and cooling, as well as being formally inventive.
:: image via KjellgrenKaminsky
Plus the firm's site offers some stories that are excellent at evoking the concept: "On the middle of the atrium stands an apple tree. The apples are ripe and looks like red Christmas balls on the tree. I walk out and start picking them, today the whole family will have apple pie for breakfast!"
:: image via KjellgrenKaminsky
Finish-line Frankfurt
I thought I would save this for last, because it really blew me away when I saw it via Dezeen. I really appreciate this blog (and get some great laughs from the comments for projects more often than not!). Part CalAcademy swooping rooftop, part land art - this competition winner by schneider+schumacher Architekten for the Staedel Museum is simply stunning - in simplicity and execution:
:: images via Dezeen
Time to get back to real life Portland... more tours to go, as I've culled a lot of Inhabitat projects from all over - Worldwide and Local - and I just bet this Vegetated Architecture thing will stick around for at least a little while, if only to amuse me. On a serious side, I'm applying for a fellowship to travel and document Vegetated Architecture - so perhaps in the immediate future will be able to offer a little more primary source material as well.Friday, March 7, 2008
Representing: Greening Buildings
The methods of representing vegetation on buildings is of vital importance to the acceptance and further expansion of the concept. I'd dare posit that it's also a strategy to create excitement as well as enough realism where this doesn't lead to disappointment when the project is build. In this vein, some representation of projects - via digital, analog, and in-between techniques.
A simple and effective example by Diller Scofido + Renfro shows a hybrid drawing computer collage that is striking - especially the ability to defy gravity a bit by jutting off the bottom of the page for the pool area. This image really got me thinking about the topic, due to it's combination of old-new/digital-analog - but in essence more storyboard than drawing - essential design communication.
:: image via Brand Avenue
This touches on similar thematic ideas in 'Willas Wonderland' by LOOM studio, et al. (recently covered by architecture.MNP, previously by others, most comprehensively BLDGBLOG, per usual) which straddles storyboard/graphic novel with storytelling: From Loom Studio site:
"Thinking of our comic book as a model for reality, we know every community needs a vehicle that joins and carries many voices, many visions and many hands. These must be carried forth with human perspective in the context of actual human experience. Large projects are often developed in cities where rational economic and executive force usurps human comfort, practicality and beauty. Bird’s-eye planning rarely addresses human perspective from the street. Every city has need for humane stories, woven into the fabric of daily life and the places that nurture and inspire. A child’s perspective is often the most honest, pure and accurate."
:: Star Park (from Willa's Wonderland) - image detail via Loom Studio
A fusion of sorts, and more design than cartoon - but equally compelling are the graphics of the proposed Ronchamp expansion by Renzo Piano, with a simple graphic transition to section view which I think is just pure design poetry:
:: images via architecture.MNP
Curbed LA offers a North Hollywood school, with some aptly old-school plan and model shots of rooftop spaces for NoHo's Ark - a charter high school focusing on architecture, engineering and construction management:
:: images via Curbed LA.
I'm still amazed people still do physical models in our digital age - particularly realistic versions versus massing or monochromatic building forms - just because they look so bad. As we've discussed previously, there are few available graphic techniques to appropriately depict plant materials, and the model-train set kit is definitely not up to the task, in similar wasy that paper and digital methods are. They look like crap.
In some ways, it comes off as even less successful in certain paper techniques. I've ranted before about the bad SketchUp model - but there's also the case of the vague depictation to give the feeling of vegetation without actually giving a clue as to what it really will be. These are better, but a good case in point, the rendering of a Tesco store by Allies & Morrison (above), and a proposed building renovation in Chicago (below) showing courtyard and rooftop green and color with little actual meaningful detail:
:: image via BDonline
:: image via Chicago Journal
:: images via Dezeen
A typical graphic veers towards the didactic - particularly the typical 'green' building diagram - this time featuring rooftop vegetation as one of the strategies (in this case, a silly rooftop garden and mound atop a generic structure - via Jetson Green:
:: partial image via The Washington Post
The digital age has provided for some interesting techniques, which deserve more attention that they get in this post - but I quite like the 'abstracted materialism' of these renderings for the Ritz Carlton hotel in Dubai (realism without trying to be too realistic):
:: images via WAN
This really just scratches the surface of representational techniques - and I aim to add to this in the future. All types have merit - whethere the designerly scribbles to the complex and realistic photo-montage. As many good and bad examples exist of both - but when it comes down to it there really is just a simple goal - provide adequate information to depict the concept that speaks to the particular audience. Sounds simple, right?
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Stormwater to the Streets
A short while back I was surprised to see in one of my favorite blogs, Pruned, an article entitled: 'Hyperlocalizing Hydrology in the Post-Industrial Urban Landscape'. For most, is just a hyperbolic hydrologic way of saying, look, green streets! The profile focusses on the award-winning work of Portland's own Kevin Robert Perry, currently employed at Nevue-Ngan Associates, and projects completed while he was working at Bureau of Environmental Services 'Sustainable Stormwater Group'. The feature is well illustrated and full of complements. 
:: image via Pruned
Which is, of course, well-deserved. These are seminal projects that have made green streets a household word here in Portland, and I know KRP has been hard at work spreading the gospel in other cities around the nation. From the tres-urban model at 12th & Montgomery, to the widely applicable NE Siskiyou Street project, (both ASLA national award winners - although I will admit to scratching my head about Siskiyou getting the nod - but what the heck... you go KRP!). Either way, since these projects have gone in, bar has been set high. 
:: 12th & Montgomery Green Street - image via Pruned
:: NE Siskiyou Green Street - image via Pruned
It's exciting to see the work, and even more so to see the cumulative ripple effect, specifically in the Pacific Northwest. The City of Portland has adopted standard approved green street details based on these preliminary projects, which are accepted as viable stormwater management strategies. A fair number of projects going in the ground have green streets, and City Commissioner and Mayoral-candidate Sam Adams, thinks this is only the beginning.
In a sweeping proposal, Adams outlines 'Grey to Green' (borrowing from Girling and Kellett a tad), which outlines is summarized by the long history of pipe and pump for stormwater: "For over 100 years Portland has relied on engineered solutions to deal with our abundance of rain water run off. But in the past decade environmental advocates within and without city government have helped to shape a new vision that values this watery abundance as an asset that enhances our city rather than a problem that needs to be piped underground."
The end goal: MILES of green streets and ACRES of green (eco) roofs. The last I heard, the proposal was being confused with the 'Safe, Sound, and Green Streets'... a focus on transportation infrastructure and safety, but no stormwater. I'm sure there will be more to come on the Grey to Green proposal. Someone tell me what's up... they got me all excited then dropped it.
While I applaud the City for the brio and inventiveness, there is a strong desire to have more, but also to really focus on quality - and i hope we can inject some diversity into this discussion. A recent project we worked on at GreenWorks with BES identified some strategies to adapt the approved details for some contexts other than straight urban/residential settings.
:: Residential Green Street - Taggart Basin - image via GreenWorks
This reminded me of a similar vein from Brice at Something About Maryman, reinforcing that we are talking about quality, as well as really QUANTITY specifically in the Seattle area. Quoted below:
"I’ve been trying to find information about various cities and how much area of the city is within their right of way (ROW). Well, since no one can point me to a comprehensive list of the data, let’s start at home, shall we? Here in Seattle we have: 54,000 acres of land in the city, nearly 14,000 of which (about 26 percent) is in the ROW As of 2004, there were 1,534 lane miles of arterials, and 2,412 lane miles of non arterials... Fascinating stuff, right? But the here’s the reason I was looking for the information. Hypothetically, if we were to take 6’ out of each of those arterial right-of-ways for swales and/or rain gardens, we would reduce the pervious surface in Seattle by some 48,597,120 sq ft (assuming those ROW’s are paved across the entire cross section). Now that’s just the reduction in impervious surfaces; I’m not smart enough to figure out reductions in stormwater runoff, treatment of nutrient loads and reduction of hydrocarbon pollutants. Maybe someone else can…but still, I thought it an impressive number nearly 50 million square feet..."
:: Our national flower - image via Treehugger
This really reinforces some recent quotes by Lewis Mumford, a poignant one being: "...Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf." Make sense and does it really surprise us that it has some major ramifications for water quality that we must deal with. Some of those impacts locally: a subsequent recent post on SAM, news from from the Olympian regarding the Puget Sound, with an interesting statistic:
"The state Department of Ecology has estimated that stormwater runoff sends more contamination into Puget Sound than any other pollution pathway. It delivers 22,580 metric tons of oil and petroleum each year - more than 20 times the volume of direct oil spills entering the sound. "
While we make a big deal out of point source pollution and spills, and love articles about caffeinated and drugged fish... we tend to neglect this non-point source pollution. One green street is a good start. Miles is a good follow-up. Every street a green street - sounds like a good goal.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Past Forward: Mannahatta
I may have mentioned my love of historic urban maps. If not, then I will plead guilty here, and offer up Strange Maps as a vital modern contribution to our historical heritage, and let slip fact that I've read most of the written works of Mark Monmonier. As objects, maps are fascinating artifacts. Even more interesting is using these remnants of history to attempt to visualize and recreate a baseline, whether that be social, ecological, or other. A small past project started to delve into this in Portland - looking at maps of historical and 'disappeared' streams to evokes some of the cities hidden hydrology. I'm currently evolving this idea in an essay, so look forward to more on this in the future.
The work of Dr. Eric Sanderson and the Mannahatta Project takes this concept to a whole new level. The introduction to this project for me came while reading 'The World Without Us' towards the end of 2007. My reactions to the schizophrenic nature of the book notwithstanding, I was totally drawn into the chapter on Mannahatta, in method and vision. Today, Treehugger profiled this project, featuring a talk by Sanderson and a range of visuals to provide a vision for what is now New York City - of over 400 years ago. The study begins with analysis of historical maps:
:: 1782 British Headquarters Map Detail - image via the New Yorker
:: 1819 Farm Maps - image via the New Yorker
Mannahatta, which is derived from the indigenous Lenni Lenape tribal name for the land, seemed historically to burst with diversity. As Treehugger mentions in the lecture, Sanderson equated the beauty of Mannahatta as equal or greater than that of Yellowstone or Yosemite, and that it: "...was more biologically diverse than either of those two areas, and with its hardwood forests, freshwater, and estuarine environments, Mannahatta’s 54 different ecological communities (that is, interacting species living in the same place, bound together by a network of influences) and lush greenery would have dazzled any nature lover." 
:: Mannahatta, circa 1609 (with current landform outline) - image via the New Yorker
:: Collect Pond (now Foley Square) - image via the New Yorker
Another resource is an audio interview with Sanderson on the Wildlife Conservation Society site, as well as some fact sheets and link to a fascinating paper authored by Sanderson and Marianne Brown entitled 'Mannahatta: An Ecological First Look at the Manhattan Landscape Prior to Henry Hudson'. 
:: Lower Manhattan - image via the New Yorker
Sanderson took the early mapping, along with a computer program named 'Muir webs' to piece together the hidden puzzle of the geology, topography, hydrology and ecology of early 1600's Manhattan. Quoted via Treehugger:
"Sanderson is using his program to map what would have existed on each city block in Mannahatta 400 years ago. The program works through a process of matching animals to their habitats and vice-versa. By knowing that a certain animal species existed in an area of Manhattan and knowing what that animal ate, Sanderson can predict through the Muir webs program what plants or soils would have been there as well, or conversely can use knowledge of plants and soils to discover what animals would have found a habitat in any specific area."
One issue with the visuals is a lack of immediate context - kind of a vagueness of 'nature shot's without seeing the 'before and after' shots of landscape and city together. Plans are in the works to provide the ability to juxtapose old and new maps, and the entire endeavor will be well documented in time for the 400 year anniversary of Hudson's voyage to the area in 2009. Here's an example of this:
:: Mannahatta + Manhattan (Times Square then and now) - image via the New Yorker
As I mentioned, it's interesting to see the major changes in our urbanism - as well as to see the fact that the inherent nature of place is difficult if not impossible to erase. Coming full circle, back to a bit later date in history - is the map that I first encountered - the Survey Map of 1852 shows an early pioneer Portland in it's fledgling, even pre-Stumptown days. Focussing on waterways and topography, it's interesting to see what was hidden, yet how much still remains of this hydrology. 
:: Survey Map of Portland (1852) - image via Portland BES
:: Detail of the Survey Map of Portland showing downtown - image via Portland BES
From a pure restoration point-of-view - there's little hope in recreated Mannahatta (or even less dense more verdant Pioneer Portland for that matter). Our challenge is to learn from these studies - what was there, what was the predevelopment baseline for water, habitat, and tree cover, then aim to recreate these functions. This can be physically (through selected ecological restoration), functionally (through green roofs, nature parks, habitat gardens, streettree canopy, green streets), and metaphorically (through art, interpretation, poetry and beauty).
This is our way of taking the past, learning from it, and moving forward a little more wise than when we began.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Architects Plus
The current issue of Architectural Record includes a great article on the continual blurring of the line between landscape and architecture as well as illuminating the new collaborative model of design involved in vegetated architecture. 
:: image via Inhabitat
One project that was highlighted was the California Academy of Sciences Building by Renzo Piano, and the collaborative nature of the design with landscape architects SWA Group. As John Loomis, SWA principal points out, there is a desire and benefit from having LAs at the table:
From AR: "As architects attempt ever more ambitious feats with green projects, the collaborative relationship between members of a design team is becoming more important. Landscape architects, in particular, are codifying their role and taking on additional responsibilities." Loomis goes on to say: "It is not about just dressing something that the architect gives us... We would always like to be in there right at the same time the architect starts on the project, if possible."
:: Roof Panel Mockup Test - image via Inhabitat
This collaborative potential offers the ability for integrated solutions, often generated and refined by the landscape architect, in collaboration with the team. The article continues to describe a solution and the integration of landscape of the technically complex roof into the building structure and design intent:
Again via AR: "SWA solved the problem by designing a semi-rigid framework that is laid across the roof to hold the sections of soil systems in place within a 24-foot grid of gabion curbs, which are wire baskets filled with volcanic scoria rock that are linked together. A interconnecting subsystem of epoxy-coated rebar and reinforced nylon strapping to maintain the alignment of the curbs. The grid is strong enough to hold the soil systems in place on the sharp inclines of the slopes, yet accommodates water runoff even at high rates during winter storms."
:: Gabions + 'portholes' - image via Inhabitat
One omission in the article was the contribution to the Cal Academy Building by Rana Creek Habitat Restoration and Living Architecture and Executive Director Paul Kephart, who was profiled in a two part interview via Inhabitat. The article highlights some of the seminal work with William Mcdonough at the GAP corporate headquarters, as well as many other significant land- and roof-based projects. The work of Rana Creek deserves a longer and more focussed post, so stay tuned.
:: 901 Cherry, Gap Headquarters - image via Airhead/CNT
This is a significant paradigm shift from the standard power structure that has existed, and is often a learning process of allowing the landscape architect a seat at the table. One aspect, often overlooked, as the difference between LAs and planting designers in the ability to design and detail complex structures. Another complex project profile via AR was the collaboration between Steven Holl Architects and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates on the Whitney Water Purification Facility. I'll spare the detail, as it will show up in a later post, as I am now completely enamored with this project.
:: Whitney Water Treatment Facility - image via AIA Top Ten
Again this project omitted another collaborate - the mysterious 'green roof' consultant - in this case Charlie Miller and Roofscapes - but, hey, at least they did include the LA... To get the credit, Miller and company have been on the forefront of the trend (along with Rana Creek) for years - and deserve much of the credit for the popularity and success of the green roof phenomenon. It is interesting to see how the credit is divided in these collaborative projects - as it's much harder to pin down and celebrate the starchitect - when you know many others were working to acheive this goal.
All projects require collaboration - between clients, designers, contractors. There is not one project built that has not required some form of integrated design. There is, as shown here repeatedly, a strong desire to integrate landscape and building into a more seamless dialogue - and this requires redefining our roles (as well as giving up a little ego and power). As we all evolve, and our creativity pushes us to demand more - the parity and benefit of these interactions will result (and has already) in some amazing solutions.
Concluding the AR article is some hope for a more integrated future: "As the environmental details of sites become more integrated into architectural design, be it to store water or to absorb the impact of a large building, landscape design is becoming a major part of the architecture. And as green roofs are growing up in our own backyards, the relationship between architect and landscape architect is sure to blossom."
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Urban Ag: Mass Planting
A February post on Urban Agriculture prompted some great comments and unlocked a few resources previously unknown to me. One included the Urban Farm mapping project Dott07. As posted by David Barrie, the project is "...a map of an 'edible' town in the North of England." 
:: image via David Barrie
Via David Barrie: "The map proposes a landscape plan for Middlesbrough that integrates productive, urban agricultural landscape in to the future strategic planning of the town. The spatial vision is built on where local people grew food as part of an urban agriculture project that I led there."
This reminds me of a former project of mine and still thriving phenomenon of green maps which have a strong urban agriculture component. There are some localized techniques, as well as new business models - which have significant ramifications on urban form, ala Farmadelphia.
In a true example of Synchronicity, this post and my own urban ag post happening almost simultaneously - each picking up some loose edges the other missed. Together, it's a good survey of the urban ag terrain. One idea that was presented was more resources on roof-farming, via BLDGBLOG. Whoa!
:: images via BLDGBLOG
Via BLDGBLOG, "Swiss Cheese City... proposes that "vacancy in cities" is really "a starting point for a new urban form." Accordingly, the project hopes to "generate new possibilities from holes in the built fabric," such as "Special Cultivation Zones (SCZs)."Special Cultivation Zones are an urban land-bank, defined by "temporary boundaries within which land can’t be bought or sold, and emerging skills, social networks and locally-grown produce are cultivated in the ‘vacant’ city fabric."Another, much more elegant designs (than the Sin-City or Portland versions) of high-rise agriculture from London with a similar name: 'The Vertical Farm Project' offers some sleek building forms that are reminiscent of the Knafo Kilmor building.
:: images via The Vertical Farm Project
In this journey, I also stumbled on Pruned's former use of the term 'Arbortecture' via Flickr regarding 'plants growing out of buildings'. This is a powerful precedent, albeit focussed more on the somewhat accidental - to my own vocabulary addition of Vegitecture... very, very cool - and I will post some Arbortecture favs soon.
:: Arbortecture - via Flickr, Keaggy
Also a recent occurence, I did find one additional reference to Vegitecture, in an essay by Michael Sorkin from 1979, in an issue of WET, the Magazine of 'Gourmet Bathing'. ? Anyone have a clue where to get a copy of that? This makes sense, as Michael Sorkin Studio and spin-off Terreform have strong, er, roots - in Vegetated Architecture.
Veg.itecture: Flat + Graceful
Picking up the previous thread (and continuing to clean out some languishing archives of projects), a few additional projects that offer some formalistic solutions, via building form, size, and representation.
A project shown in Jetson Green offers a view of the potential sustainability, building greening, and most importantly - spectacularly poetic form. As covered previously in L+U, Masdar is a model eco-city with an aim of being zero-carbon and zero-waste. This project is developed by Chicago architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, and will be the world's first positive energy, mixed-use building. Taking the idea past net-zero - the building aims to create more energy that it consumes. Anoter interesting note, the building will generate the energy required for it's construction via a solar tower to be built prior. Graceful in form, elegant in implementation. That might just be bordering on true sustainability.
:: images via Jetson Green
Similar size-wise, and will lofty sustainability goals, a significant regional project I've been following for a while is the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Center. This expansion aims to be one of the largest green roof projects in the world when completed. Inhabitat recently profiled this project, showing the expansive rooftop greening, as well as some exterior spaces which are actually pretty disappointing in these renderings.
:: images via Inhabitat
From Inhabitat, a melding of green features: "The entire 6-acre addition will be covered in a ‘living roof’ that will support 400,000 plants of indigenous varieties. A rain catchment system will irrigate the vegetation during much of the year, while grey and black water recycling systems will generate much of the centers’ own water supply. Underwater, the concrete foundation has been stepped to encourage fish habitat to return to the area, and an updated seawater heating and cooling system, similar to the original building’s mechanical systems, will pump seawater over a heat exchanger to control indoor temperatures."
Six acres of green roof is about what exists currently in total in Portland, where small blocks and small developments tend to give us more smaller projects. There are however, some significant buildings that would benefit from this expansive greening (Lloyd Center, peripheral big-box stores, and the Expo Center). It's disappointing that our own Convention Center's recent expansion eschewed green roof due to costs... while the Rain Garden is a fantastic asset - the lack of rooftop greening in a project that easily could have been a significant Portland model - is a huge missed opportunity.
:: image via Prism Magazine
Veg.itecture: Curly + Folded
Ok, I promise I am running out of formalistic themes for Vegetated Architecture, really soon. For now, a couple of posts with an exposition on shape and form around some recent projects.
Steven Holl's design for a get's a nod for interesting vegetated plane on structure, as well as the most hyperbolic name 'Sliced Porosity Block' in Chengdu, China. While not as striking in B/W imagery, the plaza and rooftop spaces are integrated into the bioclimatic strategies (quote via Treehugger): "As in Beijing, the complex is heated and cooled geothermally, and contains large ponds in its plaza that harvest recycled rainwater. Grasses and lily pads create a natural cooling effect."
:: images via Steven Holl Architects
A folded plane, similar to some recent projects, is artfully abstracted by artist Ben Peterson, in this visionary 'California Ten', which to me evokes the Gibsonian aftermath of the big quake. (A descriptive quote via architecture.MNP): "He makes exquisitely detailed and pristine renderings of impossible architectural spaces. He calls his imagined constructions follies, and they are indeed in that tradition of fanciful and unattainable spaces that are meant to set the mind to wander." 
:: California Ten by Ben Peterson - image via architecture.MNP
In a more tangible form, Eikongraphia profiles a project by Oppenheim described as 'Curly Slabs'. The iconic forms create a soaring interior void between two distinctive architectural forms that engage the periphery, as well as creating cathedral-like quasi-interior courtyard space. It's no surprise that this project is one of the boom in UAE/Dubai, where the anything-goes attitude has produced some amazing potential projects. This is no exception.
:: images via Eikongraphia
The irony of scale is evident in the interior folds of the Gazprom tower in St. Petersburg, dubbed the 'tallest tower in Europe'. Contrasting the lush interiors of the Oppenheim project above, or the interiorscapes of Nouvel - the sparseness of the terrace spaces make a somewhat comical picture when contrasted with the overall building mass:
:: images via Inhabitat
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Materiality: Textural Classes
Digging back through the archives, I discovered a theme of material texture in a number of projects. These span large-scale high-rise facades, to simple boxes, to landscape elements. A December post on Atelier A+D aptly sums up the theme, in 'Not Your Grandmother's Lace'. A number of projects experimented with variety of openings, as well as taking this as an opportunity to experiment with lighting.
O-14 Commercial Tower in Dubai by Reiser + Umemoto is a taller project with a more coarse-grain perforation, that sets it off from the orthagonal surrounding buildings and offer variable-sized penetrations for windows.
:: image via Atelier A+D
The Airspace Tokyo by Beige Architecture and Proces2 veers into striated organic forms. Coolboom refers to this as "...a layer of artificial vegetation."
:: image via Atelier A+D
Projects take different forms, and can be abstract, or take patterns that reference place or culture. The United Arab Emirates Shanghai Expo Pavilion by Foster and Partners evokes patterns of Islamic art and culture.
:: image via Atelier A+D
Another widely publicized project that uses cultural textures (which from reactions tended to split into poles of loveit or hate it) was the Polish Pavilion for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. 'Incision Skin' features a folded origami of planes representative of folk-art paper cutouts. The interactivity and lighting provide some very compelling imagery.
:: image via BLDGBLOG
:: Polish Pavilion Lighting - image via The Design Blog
The very literal and definitive patterning is interesting, but does veer into potential for over-simplified and stereotypical iterations. As Michelle Linden in Atelier A+D points out, regarding the use of arabesques: "...its now starting to worry me, that perhaps these lacy skins are a bit of a cop out... While I recognize the excitement in using new technology and old imagery to create a new building form, I'm concerned that its becoming the easy solution, particularly in the case of western architects designing in the middle east."
The texture does not need to be cultural, but can be more artistic, or abstracted. Another more small-scale version entitled 'Perforate the Box' comes via Architecnophilia. The result is an elegant project called 'Sakura' by Mount Fuji Architects plays with small holes in metal panels with amazing results:
:: images via Architechnophilia
Site scale applications can augment building forms, such as Herzog & de Meuron's 40 Bond project, with patterns derived from graffiti tag forms. The layering of texture of the foreground screen and the more subtle building texture is a pretty stunning juxtaposition.
:: image via Archidose
This use of interesting materials is slowly creeping into landscape architecture, and the use of more manipulated textures is creating some good results. A good starting point for option are the companions of Transmaterial and Transmaterial 2 series by Princeton Architectural Press, which offers some great examples of materials that 'Redefine our Physical Environment'.
These architectural solutions provide some good fodder for landscape architectural design. There seems to be a conservatism that falls back on the widely adaptable but somewhat limiting use plant materials - as well as wood, stone, and concrete which become the major ingredients in exterior designs. Adding metals and synthetics, and juxtaposing these in new interesting ways with the typical landscape designers palette, including more architectural plantings - offers myriad opportunities to expand and contemporize urban landscapes - making them more fitting and adaptable with the urban context.
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