Olympic Topiary Gone Wild

It's not a secret that I'm a big fan and proponent of vegetation occupying the vertical spaces in our lives. Perhaps it's the ubiquitousness of the natural surroundings, but the jarring use of landscape that confronts us the way great architectural materials does - makes my day. On the other hand, perhaps this can be taken too far (even for a bit of literally greenwashing)... and a once per four year opportunity does not give one the right to mis-use veg.itecture in such ways... Period.


:: image via Inhabitat

I first received this via email from a colleague at work - and then it started making the rounds in the blogosphere - and I would be remiss in not making more people endure this - just so we can all look, walk away, and do better. I'm not a big fan of herbicide use, but the Beijing Botanical Gardens International Flower exhibit must be stopped... (apologies to the gardeners... as technically these are amazing...but...)

So first the passable...




:: images via Inhabitat

...the mediocre...




:: images via Inhabitat

To finally, the just plain awful...






:: images via Inhabitat

Plaza de España

Spotted via Dezain, a link to a series of Flickr images from Herzog & de Meuron's Plaza de España in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands.


:: image via Flickr - garbar53

As mentioned previously, there is definitely not a shortage of architects flexing their muscles in the public space realm - from the landscape urbanist stalwarts of Tschumi, Koolhaas, and Allen - to the recent Nouvel exterior excursion. This space offers a variety of experiences - from the dark cave-like structure, to the vibrant Patrick Blanc designed green walls, to the ebbing central water feature. Here's a few more pics on this visual tour:






:: images via Flickr - garbar53

It is interesting, similar to the Parc del Centre de Poblenou the starkness of these spaces (although I'd give Nouvel the nod for vegetation density at least). While ostensibly dubbed a 'plaza', this seems to give opportunity for expanded hardscape specifically related to civic space. The harshness of the environment must be intense in hot sun when the water has receded from the central feature. Plus, the spaces are definitely 'structural', owing to the architectural roots - perhaps appropriate in an urban setting. There is a ring of trees, as well as the cave and the adjacent slanted green walls, but it makes me wonder if there is enough urban refuge to counterweigh the expansive pool?


:: images via Flickr - garbar53

When filled with water, a totally different scene, one popular with children similar to the tidal Jamison Square here in Portland (although at a vastly different scale). Hands-down, my favorite detail is the pocket-planted cacti with the structure... giving some architectural flourish to a pretty contrasting dark structure.




:: images via Flickr - garbar53

Maybe just fuel for the ongoing debate... H&dM are a talented duo, and why not apply that talent to public space. Is it successful as site/landscape/non-building...? Perhaps so. Urban parks blend that combination of structural urbanity with usable spacemaking at a pedestrian and recreational-user scale. Would a verdant picturesque park be appropriate...? Hell no! Would a few more square feet of greenery and some shade canopy help...? I'd say yes. In this case, the scale seems off... too big, too grand, too sparse... something that at half the size would have been twice as good maybe? (Note: I don't know much more about this project that what appears on the Spanish language Flickr page, so I'm pleading ignorance with any other team members, landscape architects included...)

Veg.itecture #35

Sunday seems to be a prime time for summarizing the weeks Veg.itectural creations... as an aside, I had the opportunity to make a presentationon Veg.itecture to a diverse group of participants as part of the Summer Sustainability Series, which was a great success the past week... and it's true - people respond to the concept of greening buildings, literally and figuratively. This is reinforced by an article in BDonline, lauding the cumulative benefits of green roofs worldwide. Phil Clark mentions this point: "Green roofs do lots of things in medium ways, but it adds up to quite a lot"

Similar to the recent post on Namba Park, there are some 'old school green roofs', as Architechnophilia mentions in a recent post regarding the very picturesque Emilio Ambasz project Fukuoka's Tenjin Central Park, (circa 1995) which was around prior to the popularity of green roof technologies.


:: image via Architechnophilia

Atelier A+D featured some photos from Georg Parthen, including this image of earth sheltered design.


:: image via Georg Parthen

Another example of buildings tucked and folded with the landscape is via Arch Daily. The Remota Hotel by Architects: German del Sol is located in Chile, and features some stunning and simple rooftop greening.




:: images via Arch Daily

Another extensive rooftop span, via Arch Daily, of: "...the Expo Zaragoza in Spain (June 14th - Sept 14th) features an astonishing pavillion/bridge by Zaha Hadid, and buildings by spanish architects Nieto y Sobejano, Francisco Mangado and Basilio Tobías."


:: image via Arch Daily

Having been involved in a number of hospital and healing projects, the idea of views from building windows is always on the table in terms of rooftop greening. It also feeds into the recent popularity of incorporating LEED and sustainable strategies into heathcare as well, with those multiple green roof benefits adding up to a good number of site points. A post in Urban Palimpsest features the LEED registered Metro Health Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is a "...LEED registered facility that includes same-handed design in the rooms. Patient rooms look out onto the green roof below."


:: image via Urban Palimpsest

A couple of green walls as well... the first a great representation from I (heart) Public Space, along with some refined bike facilities at a project in NYC.


:: image via I (heart) Public Space

Finally,, an example of being both experimental and innovative from a design firm (I'm trying to get our office to do as well...) Via BDonline the architectural practice David Morley Architects: "...has installed an experimental green wall project in its office courtyard. The wall, designed by specialist firm Biotecture, has been planted with a variety of specimens. It is designed to cool and insulate the wall’s surface, and to allow water to evaporate. The project, which began as part of the London Festival of Architecture, is also expected to improve air quality, noise attenuation and carbon offsetting, and possibly rainwater harvesting. David Morley Architects and Biotecture are also working with services engineer Max Fordham to investigate whether green walls can cool building interiors."


:: image via BDonline

Unnatural Waters

This post stems from a fascinating post I spotted a while back on Treehugger. The topic was the Foreclosure Fish... a resultant reaction from the abandonment of homes, and more specifically swimming pools. "The mortgage crisis is not only wrecking peoples' lives, it's not doing much good for the environment, either. The swimming pools of abandoned homes are perfect mosquito breeding grounds, there are worries about rampant West Nile Virus infections. In California, authorities are using airplanes to find green pools and are filling them with the Gambusia affinis, or mosquito fish, which eats the larvae."


:: image via Treehugger

Another in a long line of biological management strategies... the idea of these fish being able to escape into native waters is frightening. Again via Treehugger, re: the Gambusia affinis: "In Europe, the fish developed a taste for everything but mosquito larvae, and have displaced native fish. In Australia Gambusia caused extinctions of native fish and amphibians. In California they have decimated native species - yet civic authorities will give you a bag of them free if you have a mosquito problem. It may not seem risky putting them in a plastic and concrete pool, but the fish are champion escape artists, and can travel in as little as three millimeters of water."

This technique is used in Oregon as well, with Gambusia affinis recommended, and even supplied for free to people with open water bodies. This comes in handy in localized pools and man-made ponds, but what about this scourge being unleashed on local lakes and rivers... and they're so cute.




:: female and male Gambusia - images via Multnomah County

A variation of unnatural water... the innovative plant for providing drinking water to the Dead Sea area... via Inhabitat.


:: image via Inhabitat

"A research project from New York-based architect Phu Hoang Office seeks to address and solve these site specific issues with ‘No Man’s Land’, a series of artificial islands that would provide recreation, tourist attractions, renewable energy, and create fresh water. ... As a network of built islands with three distinct designs, ‘No Man’s Land’ would create an artificial archipaelago that employs a variety of building technology. In order to become a source of fresh water, the islands will extract water molecules from the air to be desalinated. Salinity gradient solar ponds, water purification tanks, and water filtering processes will all be integrated into the designated “water islands” of the chain. The other two island designs will be for tourists and solar energy production, providing self sufficient power as well as creating revenue."


:: image via Inhabitat

Shifting gears a bit, to a more functional topic, that of stream restoration... or the unnatural recreation of nature. A New York Times article in June investigated some of the science of Stream restoration: "...scientists say 18th- and 19th-century dams and millponds, built by the thousands, altered the water flow in the region in a way not previously understood."


:: image via NY Times (click to enlarge)

While it is reported that over $1 billion per year is spent on stream restoration, this 'inexact' science often leads to failures. As William E. Dietrich, a geomorphologist at UC Berkeley mentions: "...an awful lot of stream restoration, if not the vast majority of it, has no empirical basis... it is being done intuitively, by looks, without strong evidence. The demand is in front of the knowledge.” The results, are often, sporadic.

:: image via NY Times

Often, this work is done by eye (as mentioned above) not through the scientific empirical basis of fluvial geomorphology... as mentioned in the article, Dr. David R. Montgomery from the University of Washington says: "...most people agree that the best approach is to create landforms and water flows that streams can maintain naturally. “But how you translate that into action and at this stream rather than that stream really requires a lot of work to figure out,” he said. With an ailing waterway, he said, “sometimes there’s a clear line between the symptoms and the cause, and sometimes there’s not.” Read the remainder of the article for more info...

A final version of unnatural waters, a visionary post-apocalyptic view of London. Via Inhabitat: "As part of London Festival of Architecture 2008, award-winning media production studio Squint/Opera envisions London life in 2090, long after sea levels have risen from global warming. Imitating some of the techniques of the super-idealistic Victorian landscape painters, Squint/Opera have used a combination of photography, 3d modeling and digital manipulation to present five unique visions of a tranquil utopia in a familiar, yet drastically altered, landscape."

:: image via Inhabitat

High Performance Infrastructure Guidelines

In searching for some new landscape-related links to explore, I stumbled across the blog for Design Trust for Public Space (aka I (heart) Public Space) and their 2005 publication High Performance Infrastructure Guidelines.


:: image via Design Trust

This "...detailed handbook describes practices for creating sustainable city streets, sidewalks, utilities, and urban landscaping. Following the acclaimed High Performance Building Guidelines, this sister publication launched a new era in the design and construction of public infrastructure." Looks like another version, High Performance Landscape Guidelines, will be available in 2009.

This definitely has parallels with the Living Site and Infrastructure Challenge (Cascadia GBC), as well as the Sustainable Sites Initiative (ASLA) which is starting to broaden the discussion (and tools) for site-related sustainability.

Another more focused resource is an intriguing NYC-related blog, Sustainable Parks for the 21st Century - which holds promise, as: "...this project will provide the Parks Department with research and instruction in methodologies for the creation of high-performance park design, helping the City bring its 29,000 acres of parkland into the new millennium."


:: image via Sustainable Parks

And a little bit about the broad organization, via their site: "The Design Trust for Public Space is dedicated to improving the design, utility, and understanding of New York City's parks, plazas, streets, and public buildings. As the only New York City organization devoted to bringing private sector expertise to bear on public space issues, we generate powerful working relationships that enrich the urban experience for all New Yorkers by making the city more sustainable, functional, and available to all."

The landscape architecture profession definitely needs to push these boundaries of sustainable sites - and definitely communicate and collaborate with consistency - but also don't place all of our eggs in one basket, such as the ASLA sponsored Sustainable Sites Initiative. I like the idea of regionalism, which is more appropriate for sustainability, versus a one-size-fits-all LEEDesque approach. What does a sustainable park look like in NYC, versus Portland, or Tucson? This is a great question. Are there consistent themes? Absolutely. Do these need to be refined and adapted to local places - including values, climate, and opportunities? Even more so. So I will read these documents for ideas, and look to apply them on this coast... looking forward to it.

Fusionopolis by Ken Yeang

Well, it's not a secret that I am an admirer of Ken Yeang, and his unique brand of Bioclimatic Architecture - mostly because of its reliance on multiple tenets of the Veg.itecture concept: 1) use of vegetation for environmental systems; 2) use of vertical and horizontal surfaces; and the mixing of these concepts for aesthetic means. Inhabitat recently featured an amazing version of this, Fusionopolis (along with a link to a much more extensive article in the Telegraph), slated for downtown Singapore is a "... research and development complex, this structure will adorn Singapore as the island nation’s most eco-friendly skyscraper."


:: image via Inhabitat

As usual, not just eye candy, but some serious green architecture in a literal and figurative sense. Via Inhabitat: "The 15-story building will be 1.4 Km high, and boast of a ‘green infrastructure.’ The building will be home to the longest continuous vertical stretch of vegetation of any building in the world. A vertical spine of planting will rise up through the building, and landscaped garden terraces will be located on each floor of the building. The vegetation will help in passive cooling and insulation. The vegetation will also improve the sense of well being of the residents."


:: image via Inhabitat

Continuing: "Natural daylight will be directed into the building interior by prisms which deflect the sunlight as it hits them. The drainage and irrigation system will also integrated green features. The whole building will function as an ecosystem, and strive to strike a balance between the organic and inorganic elements so as to make the building work like a living system."


:: image via Inhabitat

These images are part of a larger master plan by Zaha Hadid, making Fusionopolis a potential regenerative community with a mix of buildings and uses. This building up is sometimes percieved as resource-intensive, but Yeang definitely believes density is the way to protect valuable land surrounding cities. Via the Telegraph: "Some may question whether a real environmentalist should ever build a skyscraper, but he's unrepentant about this. He very much supports the case for skyscrapers, arguing that these are better than the alternative, namely cities – in countries such as China and Singapore – that expand by growing ever outwards. Their urban sprawl, he says, gobbles up valuable land better served for food production."


:: image via Inhabitat

The cutting edge design of Yeang is world-renowned, and really deserves some implementation on a larger scale, both to test out the viability and provide some compelling examples of Bioclimatic Architecture on a large scale. This project boasts, via the Telegraph: "...the longest continuous vertical stretch of vegetation in any building anywhere in the world."

That's something we all deserve to experience...

Serendipitous L+U

In the midst of writing a rave review of Alan Berger's fine tome Drosscape (look for it in the next week), a very brief post from Pruned with the cryptic text 'We ♥ P-REX' appeared, and sent me to the site of Berger's Project for Reclamation Excellence, which has a ton of great information... after a look, I'd say I 'heart' P-REX as well.


:: image via P-REX

Some background on P-REX, stemming from Berger's copyrighted tagline:

"Systemic Design Can Change the World© ... Systemic Design implies that there are larger scale forces in the built and natural environment that, if properly understood, will lead to more intelligent project scenarios as opposed to superficial cosmetics. Systemic Design merges the existing stresses on a landscape with multi-layered, time-based strategies that work to reclaim value and increase sustainability in the built environment. Systemic Design seeks to interact with the environmental, economical, and programmatic stresses across regional territories.

Understanding how natural and artificial systems dynamically function in regions and cities, and ultimately feedback from new design and planning interventions, forms the basis for smarter urban landscape projects in the future. Rapidly expanding technological and design mining tools enable new readings of landscape systems, and the invisible flows and forces that shape the tactile world. Professionals who are prepared to understand, use, and act on those readings will produce the next generation of strategic solutions to address the most pressing environmental and social challenges of our time, including: climate change, landscape toxicity, renewable energy, water process, deindustrialization, environmental justice, and adaptive reuse. We believe that innovation and discovery must be fostered through transdisciplinary inquiry and performance. Acting individually, professional fields are having marginal to no effect on urban sustainability. Conversely, Systemic design reorganizes disciplinary thought and process around one critical idea: innovation. The goal: to plan and design more environmentally sustainable urbanism at all scales."

Some interesting projects (and graphics) include those associated with the Wellington-Oro Site Planning, in Breckinridge, Colorado, which: "...an overarching ecological strategy that integrates all 7 project areas into one functioning system combining remediation and recreational land uses. On a larger scale, hydrological, ecological, and circulatory systems for recreation run through the entire site and are woven through the concept plan’s 7 project areas. On a smaller scale, each project area consists of environmental and time-based ecological design strategies that incrementally build new habitat, vegetative communities, and biodiversity, while cleansing water and soil degraded from previous landscape activities."




:: images via P-REX

Another project I like is the Pontine Systemic Design, which is described as such: "The site strategy is to artificially re-introduce a gigantic new “wetland machine” for filtering, habitat, and biological exchange. ...The Wetland Machine’s dimensions are directly related to the amount of wetland area needed to treat the amount of water in the Canale Aque Alte—the major collector for this highly polluted zone. At 220 l/s, with a load around 50+ mg/l of N, at least 2 square kilometers of treatment wetland will be required. The design retro-fits and widens existing canals to serve as flow distributors. Furthermore, soil cut/fill operations are used for terraforming shallow ridges and valleys to hold/treat water and make raised areas for new public space and program."






:: images via P-REX

It's interesting graphically, and picks up on the sum total of Berger's work in reclamation, both in theory, competition and practice, found in many of his writings as well. One interesting aspect on the site was the concept of projects described with both the Landscape+Urbanism title, and abbreviated L+U... which seemed oddly familiar, no? Not sure the timeline of this usage versus my own, but hope to find out - any ideas?

People who live in Grass Houses...

This one via Arch Daily is quite odd... I'm strangely fond of the form of the Amalia House by GRID Architects in it's very modern form, as well as the verdant color of the building skin. I was also mesmerized by the glowing green facade - and wondering, maybe, if it was something vegetal.


:: image via Arch Daily

Alas, the effect is from the use of... yep, artificial grass panels, covering a frame of wood panels...


:: images via Arch Daily

Via Arch Daily: "To give tribute to the nature around her and maximize the interchange between inside and outside, the house is completely covered with artificial grass -with only the windows left out. ... Amalia is the first artificial grass camouflage building in Austria."

:: images via Arch Daily

Tribute to nature huh? Well... artificial grass is neither natural nor terribly sensitive, made up of such natural materials as polyethylene and nylon... While perhaps it is somewhat blended with it's environs, and perhaps some landscaping in the building site would be a bit more of a 'tribute'. Like I said, I really like the form - and love the soft velvety green surface... but something rings a bit wrong with this one.

I guess it eliminates the need for a welcome mat...

Veg.itecture #34

Time for another installment... a good amount of new projects, both interior and exterior vegetation. The first, shown a while back in Veg.itecture #31 has gotten a lot of press of late (and some new images) - under the moniker Xeritown. Sounds kind of dry...?




:: images via Xeritown

A little bit of greenery atop Brisbane, Australia's Limes Hotel by Alexander Lotersztain. I really like the wall surfacing in the courtyard in the second image as well.




:: images via Dezeen

Tod Williams and Billie Tsien are, according to the NY Times, developing: "...Harmony Atrium between West 62nd and 63rd Streets as a “theatrical garden” featuring 20-foot-high walls of plants and rods of falling water. ...The two plant walls are to consist of ferns, bromeliads, moss and flowering vines. “You’ll really have a sense of the oxygen they give out,” he said."




:: images via NY Times

Fresh on the heels of some photographic vegetation at Wimbledon - some more vegetated architecture on some adjacent housing, via BDonline: "All three units are to be topped with sedum roofs, and the architect also plans to include grey water recycling, ground source heat pumps and underground water tanks to hold surface water."


:: image via BDonline

Jetson Green featured a sedum-covered rooftop on the is Blue Ridge Parkway Destination Center in Asheville, North Carolina.


:: image via Jetson Green

Wood Wharf in the London Docklands, with a range of rooftop greening, as well as a waterfront park designed by Martha Schwartz (via BDonline)




:: images via BDonline

A Trio of Landscape Sites

These may not be new to everyone, but a few new links added to the sidebar under 'Blog Check'. As landscape architecture gains more visibility on the web, it's exciting to see more sites pop up to offer information and criticism around the profession. This builds on the solid work of sites such as Pruned and the 'landscape futures' information from BLDGBLOG, as well as the ASLA blog, The Dirt. There are a bunch of related urbanism and planning sites that have a cross-over, but very few than specifically focus on landscape issues as well as separating themselves from the myriad of gardening blogs out there.

Garden Porn definitely wins for the best name, as well as 'irreverent' commentary from landscape designer Michelle Derviss - along with a variety more refined imagery and ideas.


:: image via Garden Porn

Playscapes is related to a subset of landscape architecture (and one of those lost arts) - playground design in the public realm - from Arcady, that same gardenhistorygirl...


:: Hula Hoop Dome - image via Playscapes

With People in Mind definitely gets my vote for most earnest startup (the reference on the opening page to L+U doesn't hurt either :) is subtitled 'Landscape Architecture at its Best'... sounds pretty good, and I'm looking forward to more posts.


:: image via With People in Mind

As always, anyone knows of landscape architecture specific blogs (aside from those particular to firms and such) please pass them my way. I think soon, looking at the extensive list on the Blog Check, that these may get subdivided a bit for easier access - so stay tuned to that.

New Landscape Architecture

It seems that urban agriculture, veg.itecture, and ecoplanning take a good bit of the attention span of myself, this blog, and the media. I forget sometimes to feature that bastion of landscape and urbanist principles rolled out in one neat package - quality urban landscape projects. There are many, from the recent ASLA national award winners, including the fantastic Lurie Garden in Chicago's Millenium Park by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd. and the Fountain Promenade at Chapultepec Park in Mexico City by Grupo De Diseño Urbano SC which both blend park beauty and urban density with impeccable landscape detailing.


:: Lurie Garden - image via ASLA


:: Fountain Promenade - image via ASLA

There are also a steady stream coming from competitions and commissions world-wide. Another great old project from Pruned (thank god - a post like the old days), investigates a project winner from the Envisioning Gateway competition by Ashley Kelly and Rikako Wakabayashi entitled Mapping the Ecotone. Perhaps the idea of ecotone - perhaps the use of time as a design elements that works with, rather than ignoring, climate change. Trevi's analysis is in fine form, check it out:






:: images via Pruned

Another competition winner, one I first spotted in the great book Urban Landscape - and recently on Coolboom is the City Lounge by Carlos Martinez and Pipilotti Rist in St. Gallen, Switzerland. I'm usually not a fan of blatantly avant-garde landscape design that is lacking in landscape, but there's something about this design I like - perhaps that it seems like a safe fall surfaced adult playground for the city.




:: images via Coolboom

Perhaps more art that landscape architecture, Designboom features the installation 'Landmark Route' by Ronald Hernandez, Marcelo Valdes, Osvaldo Veliz uses wood clad boxes for resting and information along a rural route in Chile.




:: images via Designboom

Patel Taylor's Eastside City Park in Birmingham, London (via BDonline) is a thin ribbon of activity measuring 40m x 800m, acting as a catalyst for development along the way. The graphics depict water features, a variety of spatial arrangements, and large metal 'gateways' to frame the vistas.




:: images via BDonline

And finally, the Brooklyn Bridge Park is nearing construction, via a post in World Architecture News. The plan doesn't tell much other than the interconnected gems along the waterfront spine, but the renderings are a bit more evocative.






:: images via WAN

Until this last one, that wins the award for throw-away digital image of the day - a placeless, formless farmer's market on gravel that could take place virtually anywhere. Someone must have needed some filler on a board or been at the end of a long day. :)


:: image via WAN

Landscape Criticism from the Hipster Writer Crowd

To preface the following, may I say I heart and cherish my tomes stack in an end table of McSweeney's Quarterly - each with a different style and shape and format... some impenetrable, some trite - all amazing and wonderful literature. I love Dave Eggers work (with the exception of the 'let's be serious' for a bit 'What is the What.') and devour each issue with relish. I will also add that when looking for criticism of landscape architecture works - I do look to the NY Times, but perhaps from now on will skip the op-ed contributions of McSweeney's editors (or just those at-large).


:: image via Curbed

Sean Wilsey penned the Op-Ed on July 9.2008 regarding his underwhelming take on the High Line designs - and while I don't agree with every design move on the project, the criticism rang a bit hollow. While I respect one's right to voice their opinion on the merits of public space, park design, or frankly anything - one must also understand the topic to a degree that warrants attention. All said, I'm going to assume it was satire, and skip any negative feelings that would make me dislike McSweeney's...


:: image via Curbed

Some of the ideas are good - and part of the scheme, such as adding vibrant retail under the high-line, ala the Promenade Plantee in Paris or adding art exhibition space - making the open space a true public space with a cultural relevance as wedl. It's not going to be just 'grass and sumac' - but includes a variety of plantings led by Piet Oudolf - whom is pretty far from banal in terms of planting design. I also agree it's pretty cool in it's present form. But a pasture with farm animals, snow-making machinery, roller coasters, slides from office windows however, are just cute throwaways (and Wilsey admits it, with a grain of longing) - or just plain silly. Anyway, it's a disservice to characterize this as 'middlebrow design'... in any sense. Look around the world (or the US to be exact) and find a million examples of true middlebrow design. This is not one of them.


:: image via Curbed

Will it be the best piece of landscape architecture... maybe. But perhaps one of the most restrained and innovative designs out there... due to the fact that it lacks the bullshit, PPS, placemaking ephemera that people equate with good design. It's space, to use, enjoy, travel, and look upon. So, Sean... keep up the good work... love the McSweeney's and whatever the editor at large does I'm sure is really great - but let's leave the space and placemaking to the professionals... shall we? Once it's done, we can see the glory of it all - and if it sucks, make fun of it all we want.

Sky Farm Replay

It's interesting to see how trends seem to hone in on one person that becomes the locus of most of the attention around a subject. Patrick Blanc and vertical gardens, Fritz Haeg with the 'revolutionary' idea of tearing up the lawn and planting vegetables, Michale Pollan and well, everything related to food - and now Dickson Despommier - who seems to be the media darling around the idea of Vertical Farming. The NY Times featured another article around this idea, positing: "What if “eating local” in Shanghai or New York meant getting your fresh produce from five blocks away? And what if skyscrapers grew off the grid, as verdant, self-sustaining towers where city slickers cultivated their own food?"


:: image via NY Times

Some specifics: "Dr. Despommier estimates that it would cost $20 million to $30 million to make a prototype of a vertical farm, but hundreds of millions to build one of the 30-story towers that he suggests could feed 50,000 people. “I’m viewed as kind of an outlier because it’s kind of a crazy idea,” Dr. Despommier, 68, said with a chuckle. “You’d think these are mythological creatures.” Well, from some of the imagery below, it looks as if they may be...


:: image via NY Times


:: image via NY Times

And some technical support: "He says his ideas are supported by hydroponic vegetable research done by NASA and are made more feasible by the potential to use sun, wind and wastewater as energy sources."


:: image via NY Times

Via NYT: ""A vertical farm has to be adapted for a specific place," said Augustin Rosenstiehl of Atelier SOA Architects in Paris, whose firm has created renderings of the crop-filled skyscrapers." One of SOA's visions more compelling images is found below:


:: image via NY Times

An interesting example via the article is from Seattle firm Mithun, who's Living Building Challenge winning entry: "...a small-scale vertical farm design for a Center for Urban Agriculture in downtown Seattle. The design won an award in the Living Building Challenge of the Cascadia Region's chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council in 2007... The Mithun vertical farm design differs from Dr. Despommier's high-rise concept, but has piqued the interest of officials in Portland, Ore. "It was pushing the envelope as to how people might live sustainably in the future," said Bonnie Duncan of Mithun."




:: image via NY Times

This is a very cool example and one that has been featured locally in the Seattle DJC in May. Not sure exactly how this 'piqued' the interest of Portland officials, as we've been talking about rooftop ag. here for a while (the first I remember was 2001, where there was talk of taking an abandoned helipad atop a parking structure and converting it to a community garden ... but whatever.

Another interesting competiton winner from a Seattle firm is Bumper Crop (again via the Seattle DJC), an interesting agricultural intervention from MillerHull Partnership, featuring: "...movable aeroponic plant trays shade parking and reduce the heat island effect at a Scottsdale strip mall. Biofuel and textile-quality plants take irrigation from a treated city sewer line. Rainwater capture waters plants that could be harvested on-site at a lot-side farmer’s market."


:: image via Seattle DJC

But just don't forget the one name for Vertical Farms - and that's Despommier. Dickson Despommier.

Materiality: Textured Panels

As I mentioned back in March - the application of art, architecture and other detailing can have a significant influence on how we express landscape and urban interventions. While many materials are somewhat specific to architecture, or are artistically used in ways that aren't typically functional - there are some great examples that have real application in the landscape.

From Treehugger, some garden panels at the Victoria & Albert Museum's John Madejski Garden. From Treehugger: "The screens are made from green recyclable plastic paving blocks, commonly used in construction all over China. They create a green and sumptuous looking series of free standing walls, similar to the screenings used in traditional chinese garden design. They turn a utilitarian material into something attractive and different." Designed by up and comer Yung Ho Chang who is the "...Beijing-born architect studied in the US and established China's first private architectural firm, Atelier FCJZ. His firm is concerned with "ecology, reuse, and historical continuity as ignited by contemporary conditions."


:: image via Treehugger

Another new example with a great form and a simple materiality from Dezeen - is the 'Technicolor Bloom' - a series of 1400 flat plywood panels that form a curved and perforated, and quite stunning, tunnel.




:: images via Dezeen

The name of the designer, Brennan Buck, definitely caught my eye. Not sure if it's a coincidence... a landscape designer from Portland with that name from a few years back I met while writing an article for OregonLAND, the award-winning local journal published by the Oregon ASLA. Last I heard he was heading for academia... well maybe its him - anyway, nice work, whichever Brennan Buck was involved.


:: images via Dezeen

Continuing, we have a 'curtain'... with some floral references




:: images via The Design Blog

...and a 'veil' for an Austrian roadway with some mood ring aspects (via WAN)




:: images via WAN

From Milan, via Dezeen, a fusion of light and material, Project Or, "...a vortex-shaped installation in a courtyard in Milan that reacts to sunlight. ... The installation is made up of photo-reactive segments that are translucent when in the shade but coloured when exposed to sunlight."




:: images via Dezeen

And more from Milan, some architectural 'lace' by Antonio Citterio.




:: image via Inhabitat

Switching it up to an architectural scale, there is a more simple, circularly perforated building massing for a building in Beijing. Guanghualu SOHO is functional as well as beautiful, via WAN: "The four 60-meter-high towers have what architect Ma terms ‘bright lungs’. Differing from many office buildings that have their elevators and hallways in the center, Guanghualu SOHO has its elevators and hallways next to the glass facades. The ‘dots’ on the facades and the ‘bright lungs’ bring sunlight directly into the building."




:: images via WAN

On a related note, one of my favorite office references for inventive materials is the book Transmaterial, by Blaine Brownell. There is a new version that emerged in January of this year titled, appropriately enough, Transmaterial 2 - but I have yet to get a change to pick that one up yet... the reviews are good - and the inspiration (along with these images above) just keeps coming.


:: image via Archidose

Vancouver Olympic Village

Following up on a post regarding the recent article that featured the work of PWL Partnership, some more in-depth coverage of the work surrounding the Southeast False Creek Olympic Village for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. Beyond 'green' as a strategy, this site is literally green with rooftops and open space around a dense village of knitted mixed-use buildings.




:: images via Skyscraper City

Some info on the village from Skyscraper City: "The 16 building, 1.4 million square foot, single phase Olympic Village is being built to the LEED Gold standard while the Community Centre is being built to LEED Platinum. The building that will become seniors' housing is going to attempt to reach the Net-Zero standard, which represents annual energy, water, and carbon neutrality. All of the buildings will feature green roofs, passive solar design, beyond-code insulation and glazing, and low/no VOC paint and carpets. Rain water will be retained in cisterns to be used for irrigation of the green roofs and landscaping. The buildings will be heated and cooled using an in-slab hydronic system connected to a hybrid district heating/cooling system powered by high-efficiency natural gas boilers and heat exchange system that will use both ground-source heat pipes and an innovative heat exchange system tied into the sewer pipes to recover their latent heat. Electricity comes from local hydroelectric dams. A streetcar will run through the neighbourhood and connect it to two nearby rapid transit stations. All parking is underground and well below average in its parking to dwelling ratio."






:: image via Skyscraper City

In addition, the proposed LEED Platinum community center is draped in green roof and living walls.




:: images via Skyscraper City

Also, an interesting 'referential' park within the development. The 'Crane' Pocket Park is dubbed 'Public Memory of the Industrial Past' - referencing the ship and dockyards


:: images via Skyscraper City

The real deal (or a version thereof) of the shipping port cranes.


:: image via zpmc

With all of the attention on the upcoming Beijing Summer Olympics and it's 'greening' of China - it's good to see a real honest development related to sustainability related to the games. This village is not just a once-off for some Olympic glory, but has the potential to become vital fabric for the ever-growing Vancouver region. It's one of those projects that seems like it would happen with or without the games... For another aspect of the Southeast False Creek area, check out some of the Urban Agriculture planning that has gone on around this village (featured previously on L+U here)


:: image via City of Vancouver

Design the 21st Century Street

Well, it's time again for another competition - gleaned via Death by Architecture. Sponsored by Transportation Alernatives, the Designing the 21st Century Street Design Competition challenges entrants to envision: "...new conceptual and physical approaches to the planning of public streets."


:: image via 21st Century Street

The competition focuses on an intersection in Brooklyn, at the corner of 9th Street and 4th Avenue, which has a criss-crossing web of pedestrian, bicycle, auto, and truck traffic making their way through this mixed use neighborhood.




:: image via 21st Century Street

A good description/overview from Death by Architecture:

"Since the early 1900's, multipurpose streets originally designed to accommodate multiple modes of transportation were increasingly reshaped to prioritize motor vehicles. As motor vehicle use increased, more and more street space became designed to maximize vehicle speeds and vehicular parking to the detriment of the safety and comfort of pedestrians and bicyclists. Yet this longstanding philosophy conflicts with today's 21st Century vision of a New York City that is sustainable, healthy and equitable. Clearly there is a need to devise new street designs to meet new challenges and accommodate all users, not just those who drive.

We challenge you to think of our streets in a 21st Century context. Multiple users must be balanced once more and decades of motor vehicle prioritization reversed. We must think of our streets as first serving the basic needs of pedestrians, then bikes, then cars, but towards a balance of providing for all functions.

The purpose of this competition is to generate viable street design options that are more suited to a modern vision of our city. This begins by designing streets that integrate the needs of all users, address the problems of automobile congestion and pollution, and aim for quality of life benefits such as greater sociability, activity and economic development. This is a necessary step towards a greener New York and healthy, sustainable communities."

The are has had it's share of multi-modal conflicts, as one of the diagrams outlining injury and deaths in the area related to transportation.


:: image via 21st Century Street

The jury includes the following: Jan Gehl, Alex Washburn, Michelle de la Uz, Sam Schwartz, Andy Wiley-Schwartz, David Burney, Karen Lee, Brad Downey, Leon Reid IV and Joan Byron. With a very good supporting local cast, Jan Gehl is the obvious star of the show. It's fitting that a recent post from Archidose explains that Gehl has been hired by NYC to consult on transportation issues: "...beyond the intended consequence of actually improving the streets -- is that the plans being implemented spark discussion, they make it into the news. And discussion and exposure around urban design, to me, is a good thing." The NY Times recently featured one of these projects that Gehl is working on is being discussed.


:: image via NY Times

Some additional images and words from Archidose. "One plan underway is the closure of a portion of the west side of the roadway on Broadway between 42nd and 34th Streets, in order to create a bike lane and "pedestrian living rooms." The green strip above will become the bike lane, with planters taking the place of the orange and white striped construction bollards, to buffer people sitting on cafe chairs in the new pedestrian strip, per the rendering below."



"Locating seating in a narrow strip between two types of fast-moving traffic is the most questionable and controversial aspect of the plan, over the apparent increase in congestion that people incorrectly anticipate with fewer lanes of southbound traffic. (If anything, examples around the city -- Greenwich Village in particular -- show that fewer lanes reduces congestion, while an increase in lanes leads to an increase in traffic and congestion, a fact many people fail to accept.) Parked cars, while less than desirable in some respects, work as a buffer between pedestrians and cars; in August, when the improvements are complete, we'll see how willing people are to do without that buffer."


:: images via Archidose

The interesting aspect of removing traffic lanes and separating these zones with planters is controversial but pretty smart. As mentioned in the Archidose post, the reduction of lanes = reduction of traffic and congestion is a hard pill for road advocates to swallow. There is also the removal of parking (which is another one of those fables of planning favored by business owners - which also double as a buffer from pedestrians and traffic. This requires landscaping to take the place of something done previously by cars - which is a benefit in most people's minds. From the NYT: "The planters are a key part of the design because they will be the only thing separating the expanded pedestrian areas from the cars and trucks zipping by."

Definitely a timely option for the competition - although Broadway and the project site a very different in nature. In maintaining the competitive spirit, I'm going to keep ideas to myself for now - as a group of us at work are going to give it a go. It's a quick timeline, and a very open-ended submittal, including just a handful or images and a 500 word description. While I have no illusions of picking up another win, the point of competitions (by the definition) are of course to win (and the . The added value of the endeavor is to provide an outlet to pursue ideas and methods that are not specifically part of the day to day work (or school). Win or lose, I'll post the concepts we come up with - as well as others when presented.

ADDENDA (10:14pm):
Moments after posting this article, I had a post appear from cityofsound, with a link to some additional info on the Broadway Boulevard proposal - along with some great quotes from William 'Holly' Whyte. A must to add (via NY Sun) - from Whyte's 1977 collection of essays "The Essential William H. White."

"The pedestrian is a social being; he is also a transportation unit, and a remarkably efficient one. … Most transportation experts, however, scant the pedestrian and his potential; millions are being spent in research on new kinds of people-movers but very little on the oldest and best kind: people themselves."

And a further reference in the Sun: "Whyte mentored Jacobs in the days before her famous book, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," was published, and like Jacobs preferred to understand how cities work by personally observing social interaction and public spaces, rather than by relying exclusively on statistical analysis based on averages and aggregates. Any serious student of cities should be familiar with his work. Also like Jacobs, Whyte concluded that what makes a city great is the life that goes on in its public spaces."

"Thus..." again from Whyte: "Study the social behavior of the pedestrian and you find that a significant part of his activity is not moving, but standing, talking, and looking. Much of the congestion of busy streets is traceable to this behavior."

Landscape Wallflowers

A client sent me this article from the Vancouver Courier: 'Landscape architects shape our most 'livable' city' - which outlines the role of landscape architecture in the shaping of our urban areas. The article focuses on the work of Margot Long, a principal at PWL Partnership in Vancouver - and her most recent award-winning work in the region, including the Southeast False Creek area (with some coverage coming soon). The article does make the somewhat obvious assertion: "...just as architects have shaped our surroundings, so have landscape architects who design our parks, plazas and many streetscapes that contribute to Vancouver's label as the world's most livable city. Yet you probably don't know their names."


:: image via Vancouver Courier

While it is laudable that the spotlight is being focused on landscape architecture, it's a bit disappointing to see the vitalism of the profession and it's potential marginalized somewhat in the artilce. It's too bad, as these 'intro' stories are supposed to inspire and promote, and instead make us seem a bit wallflowerish... I quote:

"We're more of a passive, quiet crowd," said Long, the daughter of an architect. "It's very interesting. You talk to architects and you talk to landscape architects and I think it's like talking to night and day. There are some more aggressive landscape architects, more sort of self-promoting architects, but, for the most part, we're kind of behind the scenes, fly under the radar screen, just get things done and have an impact that way."

Yep, sitting around, under the radar, behind the scenes... not really making a big deal out of it. And we wonder why architects and other trades - and the public, don't take us seriously. It's an interesting way to characterize a profession - even in the terminology to explain what we do: "Landscape architects begin their work at the edges of buildings and proceed out from there by forming the land for human intervention, as Long likes to put it."

Kind of a modernist architects' take on our role.


:: Southeast False Creek Public Realm Plan - image via PWL Partnership

Continuing on, a 'historical' peek at the profession... "Landscape architects have long shaped cities.
"Frederick Law Olmsted laid out Central Park, a lot of Shaughnessy was laid out by a landscape architect, in Montreal the Mont-Royal neighbourhood was laid out by a landscape architect," Long said. Their role has evolved. In the 1930s and '40s, the focus was on planning, which later shifted to design. When the environmental movement started in the 1960s and '70s, the first environmental consultants were born out of science programs. Now landscape architecture encompasses planning, design and the environment."


:: George Wainborn Park, Vancouver, BC - image via PWL Partnership

The payoff comes at the end, with some redemption that Susan Szensay from Metropolis should hear... "Nowadays the schools are more focused on sustainability, which is interesting because we've been studying that for a long time as landscape architects, and there are things that we did 10 or 15 years ago that are being done normally right now in terms of creating wetlands and bioswells for collecting storm water in a different way," said Long. "A lot of this stuff we were doing before there was even a word called 'sustainability.'"


:: Town & Gown Square at Simon Fraser University - image via PWL Partnership

On the flip side, I really like the work of PWL Partnership, and have had enough interviews to know that someone who writes the article may not know much, or characterize well, the profession. We'll say it's that, and keep our mouth shut. :)

'Agriculture'

This old(er) post from Tropolism offers some great maps of the US in relation to agricultural production. Linked from radical cartography (a great site!), this work by Bill Rankin:

"Where does our food come from? (And where should we expect to find the "meat lobby"?) But notice the marked discontinuity in soybean production between the Dakotas and Minnesota or Iowa — different reporting methodology, or subsidies? And why is chicken production so clustered? Questions too sophisticated to be answered by these simple maps, alas."






:: images via radical cartography

Stupid Plant Tricks

This site features a lot of great, inventive ways to use landscape materials in urban areas. On the flip side, there are a lot of very, very strange ways to use plants as well. Read on for a summary of some of the more 'odd' varieties of plant manipulations I've gleaned.

Grass 'photographs' at Wimbledon, via Inhabitat: "UK artists, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey used grass as a photographic paper by projecting a black and white image on it while growing in a dark room."

:: image via Inhabitat

From Treehugger, another version of 'lawn art'... in Las Vegas:

:: image via Treehugger

Ok, maybe smart, but perhaps there may be some negative effects of 'feeding' trees concrete. Via Treehugger: "UK researchers are amending soils with powdered calcium-silicate (concrete dust) to determine if a carbon fix-boost hypothesis is correct: that crops will be induced to bind extra carbon dioxide, reacting it with calcium taken from the concrete dust (in the soil matrix). ... This reaction, whether directed by, or simply mediated by plants and/or soil organisms, would sequester more atmospheric carbon than is possible by production of plant tissue. Good for the climate."

:: image via Treehugger

With parents from the South, I'm well aware of the evils of Kudzu. Now there may be a solution and use for this nasty vegetated horror. Via Treehugger: "Our colleagues over at Discovery News have brought attention to a new report that an invasive plant that literally covers some parts of the American South could be a potential feedstock for biofuel. ... New research published in Biomass and Bioenergy shows that kudzu could produce up to 270 gallons of ethanol per acre: Not very much when compared to rapeseed, jatropha or palm oil but easily as much as can be produced from corn." Just as long as no one get's the bright idea to actually plant the stuff...

:: image via Treehugger

From ENN, another potential 'smart' trick, "Three years after it was first proposed, preparations for an African 'wall of trees' to slow down the southwards spread of the Sahara desert are finally getting underway. ... The 'Great Green Wall' will involve several stretches of trees from Mauritania in the west to Djibouti in the east, to protect the semi-arid savannah region of the Sahel — and its agricultural land — from desertification."

:: image via Treehugger

Veg.itecture #33

Clearing the files of backed up projects (to make way for the new, of course)... a brief, in text, and long, in photos, version of Veg.itecture... it's definitely got variety, although you can see the disparity between built and representative projects...

A colorful green roof atop ECOSpace, in Dunfermline, United Kingdom, by RMJM (now about the site...)


:: image via WAN

The Literacy for Environmental Justice by Toby Long Design with green roof, illustratively in perspective and plan.




:: images via Jetson Green

10000 Santa Monica Boulevard, by Jean Nouvel.


:: image via Bustler

Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, by Belzberg Architects.


:: image via Bustler

Some out-of-this-world vegitecture from the nvidia 'nvart challenge'... the complex at the centre of the universe’ by staszek marek, poland



:: image via designboom

The City Quay, Waterford, Ireland by m3 architects




:: images via WAN

The Chicago Children's Museum by Krueck + Sexton Architects


:: image via WAN

From designboom: "'MEtreePOLIS' is a project based on developments in the field of genetic manipulation a 100 years from now, that could modify plants into power producers. designed by hollwichkushner architects, new york."


:: image via designboom

Shulman + Associates Fairwind Hotel in Miami, Fla. USA.


:: image via WAN

And finally the knut hamsun center by steven holl.


:: image via designboom

Living Walls: Systems Approach

We've all seen them in action (sort of), so now it is time to check them out on a new level and get at least a cursory look at the different off-the-shelf options out there for living walls. A few select companies are offering systems that are available to North American buyers and beyond. Here's a summary of what I have found to date... anyone else knows of other products (manufacturers, here's your chance), let me know.

Elevated Landscape Technologies

Commonly used worldwide, ELT is the de facto choice for modular living wall systems. Manufactured with UV resistant 100% recycled HDPE, these 20"x20"x2.5" panels contain slats to hold plantings and media in place.

:: images via ELT

G-Sky

Another modular system, the G-Sky is an approximately 12x12" polypropolene panel mounted on steel brackets. These come pre-planted with a proprietary soil mix, filter fabric mesh, and 13 plants per panel. These, like the ELT, can be planted in a random pattern, allowing the understructure to disappear, or to made patterns using the grid modules as bitmaps (see below).

:: images via G-Sky

Another option from G-Sky is the Green Wall Containers, an very beefy integrated system that includes wall-mounted trellis and planters.

:: image via G-Sky

Green Living Technologies
A variation on the ELT, these panels are made of lightweight recycled aluminum, powdercoated, or stainless steel - and come in a variety of sizes (12"x12"x3") (24"x24"x3") (12"x24"x3") as well as custom sizes. It also comes with a very annoying website - thus the crappy pics... oh well, you get the gist.

:: images via Green Living Technologies

Naturaire

A project in the biofilter category - this site doesn't tell much about the product... but does include a number of resources that I found very helpful. Modeled after the work of the project at the University of Guelph in Ontario (featured here), there are two systems, the Naturaire Personal and Naturaire Supreme...

:: images via Naturaire

Plantwall (Green Fortune)

An even more ethereal and vague 'product', Green Fortune has an extensive and world-ranging porfolio (the other prefab boys could take a cue from this marketing). A few shots from the site - which is about all they tell you about the product.

:: images via Green Fortune

Another product with a bit more info is StreamGarden, a personal hydroponics garden... and a pic!

:: image via Green Fortune

Another that I've run across but not sure to specifics and availability (or actual seriousness and viability for that matter) at this time (or, yikes!!!)

Livingwall Gardens:

Also, there are some manufacturers of traditional trellis and cable structures - or alternative wall greening systems: Greenscreen, Carl Stahl DecorCable, Jakob AG, and LiveWall + this one:

BioWall:

High Density Growth

A fusion of vertical greening and urban agriculture, this interesting 'product' was spotted from Treehugger. A company by the name of Valcent Products developed this system for high-density gardening by, you guessed it, going upwards. Some images from the company's El Paso facility:




:: images via Valcent Products

Via Valcent: "The HDVG system grows plants in closely spaced pockets on clear, vertical panels that are moving on an overhead conveyor system. The system is designed to provide maximum sunlight and precisely correct nutrients to each plant. Ultraviolet light and filter systems exclude the need for herbicides and pesticides. Sophisticated control systems gain optimum growth performance through the correct misting of nutrients, the accurate balancing of PH and the delivery of the correct amount of heat, light and water."

I'm pretty sure this is a version of vertical hydroponics, which is not necessarily new. I guess you need the 'sophisticated control systems' but I'd watch out for the DEA snooping around... Another by a company called ecospace... with the ecocube, a modular prefab with hanging planters for gardening. (via Treehugger)


:: image via Treehugger

At first a head-scratcher, this student design is also from Treehugger. "Vert is a rain terrace: a rainwater harvester and vertical garden. This project establishes sustainable water practices through the harvesting of rain, and brings the advantages of a living wall to the backyard through vertical gardening. Vert alleviates a homes reliance on public utility systems while beautifying unused vertical space."




:: images via Treehugger

On first glance, I couldn't quite discern the function behind this one, but some expanded content explains in detail what's happening. Find more info from designer Michael Tampilic's site...




:: images via Treehugger

The Power of Wind

Not particularly focused on landscape per se, but the idea of building integrated wind is fascinating, and there are a bunch of interesting examples I thought I would compile here, with some minimal explanation. Much like urban ag, wind is a hot topic, specifically small(er)-scale turbines technology. Check these out.

A Portland project for a new Boat Storage features some integrated wind, amongst a variety of other sustainable features (from Portland Architecture): "The project is also shooting for a Gold LEED rating and one of its distinguishing features is a series of vertical wind turbines and hopes to achieve a "net-zero" energy metering. The project also will harvest its own rainwater to save 20,000 gallons of potable water per month, which will also be a visible part of the project as the two cut-out portions of the front facade will feature collecting pools for the rainwater that recall the upcoming World Trade Center memorial, "Reflecting Absence". It's also much better environmentally for the Willamette River to not have these boats rusting and leaking away in the water."


:: image via Portland Architecture

Via Inhabitat, a project with a lot of great ideas including the most integrated solution that combines wind, solar, and carbon dioxide reduction. "The Nano Vent-Skin is a zero-emission material that takes a tri-partite approach towards energy efficiency. First, it soaks up sunlight via a photovoltaic layer, and transfers energy via nano-wires to storage units at the end of each panel. Second, its tiny turbines employ “polarized organisms” to create chemical reactions, generating power each time the turbine makes contact with the structure. Third, the organisms present in the inner skin of each turbine soak up C02."




:: images via Inhabitat

There are also a bunch of great images of the tower, including the integration and how the skin looks from the interior and exterior.

:: images via Inhabitat

Another via Inhabitat, a smaller-scale variety... "The new Swift Wind Turbine is meant for rooftop residential or commercial applications and will be available in July of 2008."




:: images via Inhabitat

Again from Inhabitat, a small-scale version "“Architectural Wind is designed to install easily onto the building parapet, operating in plain sight as an attractive complement to the building’s architecture. Additionally, based on its proprietary system design, Architectural Wind turbines rotate at low wind speeds, resulting in a form of ‘kinetic architecture’ that communicates clearly the generation of clean energy. Working alone or in tandem with other renewable energy technologies, Architectural Wind is designed to offer an attractive ROI and cost per kW of installed capacity.”




:: images via Inhabitat

Treehugger had a much larger variety atop the central span of the Bahrain World Trade Center. "The building's sail-shaped towers channel the strong on-shore winds directly onto the three 29m-diameter turbine blades, which are expected to provide 11-15% of the building's power when fully operational."

:: image via Treehugger

Another couple via Jetson Green. The first is a project from Smith Gill (formerly of SOM) "One of their newest projects, Clean Technology Tower, builds on principles of biomimicry and utilizes technology and building systems to interact with the surrounding environment."

:: image via Jetson Green

:: image via Mad Architect

And another one from Jetson Green...

:: Discovery Tower, Houston - image via Jetson Green

There are obviously a few issues with habitat surrounding wind technology and possible disruption (and mortality)associated with wind - mostly documented in larger scale wind farms. These issues will definitely need study to determine the local impacts for urban fauna... particularly in proximity to flyways, nesting sites, and waterways... will these smaller scale varieties have the same issues as larger-scale versions, such as this water-borne array in Sweden?

:: image via Atelier A+D

200 Seeds: Anything Germinate?

Happy weekend. Wow - it's happened so fast. 200 posts strong - and pretty much on-goal for 2008. There have been some lulls, some work-related slow periods, and some just plain I don't want to write anything periods - which have caused me to re-think and allowed Landscape+Urbanism to do well nonetheless. Some would argue a more sporadic posting with more writing and/or theory would be good... I agree. I also have a job, a bunch of community activities, a life, and many, many other projects. So me plugging something out in half an hour is good - with an occasional longer and more thoughtful post.

:: SFMOMA Rooftop Garden - image via World Architecture News

I took this opportunity to take a look at some of the posts over the last 8 months, as well as looking at the initial Seeds and the 100th Post - and see what ideas and trends have emerged. It may be obvious to regular readers, but a quick summary...

:: Veg.itecture (of course, plus more theory about the concept)

:: Urban Agriculture (particularly new methods for expansive

:: Eco-Planning (does it exist... how to strive towards it)

:: Innovative Landscape Architecture (projects from around the world)

:: Representation Techniques (it matters - it really does)

:: Landscape Urbanism (more application and theory)

:: Readings (books reviews and such)

So a quick accounting. Since the counter was implemented in February, there have been around 36,000 visitors and almost 90,000 page views. A google search of Landscape Urbanism get's high marks, as well as a number of hits for content. Technorati is steadily increasing and sitting at 68 currently - which is good. People are reading, looking and linking. Whatever metrics are used to determine success, I feel like what I set out to accomplish has been met. There are 100 or so blogs that we are linked to - which is great. Comments have been sporadic but interesting - ranging from kudos to clarifications - all with an eye towards refining and expanding the overall understanding of issues. The comments of 'I love your blog' are nice too :)

So, in going forward, I'm not really looking to change anything dramatically... just continue to evolve the content as my interest and thinking evolves. I thought about reconfiguring the categories to better fit the content, but think I'll just leave things as-is. A search is probably best anyway.

I feel like there are a wealth of items in Portland and surrounding areas that could be covered. The slow-down of the Sustainable Stormwater Blog means I will cover more of this topic, as Portland (arguably) is leading the charge with innovative implementation. Also, I'd like to do more book reviews and articles with expanded content, as well as keeping the format of simple posts or aggregations of projects on a consistent theme.

Always, if anyone has suggestions on improvements, I would appreciate them. As a designer, I'm predisposed to accept any criticism constructively, so there's no fear in offending me. If however, there is something that you disagree with or take offense - shoot an email or post a comment. And keep reading. It's inspiring to see all of the new blogs and great inspiration, and I hope I contribute a bit to that in some way.

Urban Ag: The Pulse

It's been a while since I've done a significant post on urban agriculture. This is somewhat purposeful - for one everywhere you look the topic has caught fire. A quick summary shows recent articles in the LA Times, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, American City, CNN, San Francisco Chronicle, Globe & Mail, Granville, Dwell, Slate - and on, and on...


:: image via Treehugger

For a variety of current and upcoming projects - and a more expansive paper I'm writing - I've been compiling a number of case-studies and other assorted research around the concept of urban agriculture. Here's a quick update on some of the recent findings. Anyone interested in Urban Agriculture would be remiss to not check with City Farmer - which always has links to a number of papers worth checking out, including these:

:: Urban Agriculture Resource and Education Centre - Concept Paper
:: Edible Backyards: Residential land use for food production in Toronto
:: Urbanization and class-produced natures: Vegetable gardens in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (MRB)


One worth some further elaboration, Edible Cities featured a group from the UK did a study of US-based urban agriculture projects entitled (the report is available here) which "...shows edible cities are the future - Edible Cities, looks at examples of urban agriculture projects in cities and identifies a series of opportunities that other cities could be adopting."


:: image via City Farmer

The report summarized a number of topics and opportunities, from SustainWeb: "A commercial element to many of the US projects, which is much less common in the UK; A more liberal situation in the US than in the UK to encourage composting, but less willingness than in the UK to include animals in some urban agriculture projects; Different approaches to fencing and public access to projects, which varied within the US, depending on context; Imaginative and productive ways of growing without access to subsoil, either in raised beds on hard surfaces or, in one case, in hydroponics on a barge; Inspiring use of an holistic and sustainable approach to fish farming in an urban area which produces marketable quantities of tilapia."

Also included were ideas on promoting food production in cities, again from SustainWeb: "Using the many possibilities of urban tree planting to promote traditional varieties of fruit and nuts; Untapping the potential of both Royal Parks and other parks to accommodate some food growing in their grounds; Exploring under-utilised spaces such as derelict council property, private gardens and social housing to grow food; Making use of the abundant buildings in urban areas to grow food on rooftops, up walls and in window boxes; Building on the food growing expertise that already exists in a multicultural community, as well as providing education and training for new growers."

The materials are available for download, with a suggested donation. I have yet to delve into the report in any detail, but it definitely sounds promising. A cross-post from the concept thrown out by _urb_ on Agro-urbanism... as well as the original post - which has some comprehensive thoughts to check out. One quote worth repeating: "Luckily, architects, landscape architects, and urbanists have been planning for this type of situation. There have been many proposals in the last couple of years for different types of agricultural based infrastructures that can be integrated into nurban areas, what I am calling AGRO-URBANISM. The impetus for these proposals are manifold and include the concerns previously mentioned as well as issues of sustainability and sustainable development, a re-positioning of the landscape architecture discipline and the rise of the hybrid discipline “landscape urbanism”, and recent trends in architecture focusing on performance-based design which derive inspiration from ecological and biological systems."

A local project worth checking out is the Rocket Restaurant here in Portland, of which City Farmer had a long post from rooftop gardener Marc Boucher-Colbert. I mentioned this previously, but this article talks in detail about the trials and tribulations of rooftop ag on this innovative project, along with some more photos.

:: images via City Farmer

Some interesting background on the concept of rooftop agriculture, via Marc: "The Austrian architect and painter Hundertwasser, who seemed like he was one not to mince words, said something to the effect that by building a structure, one murders the biotic community there (pretty much true, as far as I can tell), and that, therefore, one has a moral obligation to plant the roof and restore what one has killed."

The main thrust of a number of theorists is the idea of reclaiming land within the urban core for agricultural purposes. An article from March in the Guardian on Middlesbrough posits this as well, saying: "All over the town, disused urban spaces were turned into fertile corners bursting with freshly grown fruit and vegetables as more than 1,000 residents." I've mentioned the project before, as well as directed people to the work of David Barrie (and his wide-ranging blog) but it becomes the crux of urban agriculture.

Definitely more to come... as it's still a hot topic.

Parc del Centre de Poblenou

Architecture as art. Art of Building. Vegetated Architecture. There are a lot of blurry lines out there between themes in design... and this often leads to cross-pollination and perhaps overstepping of turf sometimes. Taking the multi-disciplinary approach a bit further, Coolboom recently featured Jean Nouvel recently in the design for the Parc del Centre de Poblenou in Barcelona.


:: images via Coolboom (photo copyright Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre)

Some info from Coolboom: "...a gigantic sustainable garden of 5,5 hectares designed as “meeting point” and “acoustic microclimate” playing with light and shadows. ... The main garden of the park has a forest very well organized ending at one end of the park with a ramp of volcanic soil. In the second garden, the woodland surrounds the building of the old Oliva-Artés factory and takes the citizens through a visual and olfactory experience. In the third garden the most prominent feature is a crater that carries the visitor with a spiral to the “center of the Earth”."








:: images via Coolboom (photo copyright Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre)

As you can see from these photos, the planting is a bit lacking in spots. This seems to be a cop-out of 'urban' parks - a remnant of our nature belongs outside the city ideology, which is unfortunate. The detailing is interesting, particularly the rusted metal 'gates' and some of the iconic, architectural structures. These create some great spaces, which would be more powerful with some landscape context to set them off a bit. Be sure to check out more photos at the Flickr page of santimarti... with even more details.








:: images via Coolboom (photo copyright Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre)

This trend of architects-as-park designers (i can't resist, Parkitects) has plenty of precedents - many of which , such as Tschumi and Koolhaas at Parc de la Villette, and the work of Stan Allen (featured previously here for his Taichung Gateway Park.) along with many landscape architects, are some of the robust seeds of Landscape Urbanism.

This idea was referenced my Michelle Lin from Brooklyn in an editorial response to the NY Times: "The architecture-themed issue, “The Next City” (June 8), was a wonderful exploration of how today’s cutting-edge architectural firms, like OMA and MVRDV, are exploding the boundaries of conventional architecture. However, I would have liked to have seen perspectives from landscape architects, or what some refer to as “landscape urbanism.” Even architects like Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Tschumi and Stan Allen are turning toward landscape architecture to infuse and renew their own architectural-design strategies. Planning cities by single buildings was, and continues to be, a shortsighted strategy. To truly design our urban centers, we must now think of the city as a landscape of infrastructure (transportation, utilities) and systems (ecological, social, institutional)."

Angling back to Nouvel for a further take, the Times Online recently reported, the architect Jean Nouvel recently discussed the idea of the difference between architecture and art... with some interesting quotes. My favorite: "“For me it is the idea,” he booms. “The concept, that is everything. I don't design a lot, or work with models.” He disdains the computer - “it has no emotion, no feeling” - and even the pencil: “I craft with words.” Most of his day is spent debating, describing, cajoling, using words to get across his concepts."

Can you design with words? I love words, but need to draw and visualize to design. But design is personal - and I'm guessing for all of Nouvel's words, there are a number of talented people to realize this verbalism and give it form. Are architects capable, or should they strive, to make art? Does the act of design make architects capable of viable landscape architecture as well. Sure. I'm a proponent of good design is good design. I also think the collaboration between the two is vital. There's little info on Poblenou as to the team that made it up, whether that was local LAs or horticulturalists. Maybe that's the result of lack of collaboration, resulting in architectural elements and monocultural plantings that could have been energized with good landscape design? (See Revisit: Olympic Sculpture Park for a great example of the collaborative potential).

We as LAs often bemoan the idea of architecture usurping some of the role of park and urban design that we seem to have given up - and has gladly been taken with visiionary architects. Often the results are spotty - sometimes more architectural than good spacemaking. Often the results are amazing... As vegitecture continues, I think we'll see a shift of the pendulum back - with landscape architects recapturing some of this territory - particularly in creating and actively generating building and urban form, creating beautiful infrastructure - and perhaps even recapturing the park as a viable and innovative part of our oeuvre.

Veg.itecture #32

Time for another installment, and no slowing down of the Veg.itectural trend. As this phenomenon evolves it will be continually interesting to see the differences between the imagery that is presented in concept - and the actual project build-outs for these vegetated architectural creations. Starting with a recent post from my new favorite site, Arch Daily, the 2nd place competition winner for the CEA Cadarache Research Center by Juan Herreros Aquitectos.


:: image via Arch Daily

From Arch Daily, an excerpt of the architect's statement: "The project consists of five pieces of architecture located in a forest rich in biological activity. We have con-cluded of our visit to the site, that the best option is to inhabit the forest without exceeding their height, making architecture as a new species that respects, protects and enhances the forest, until create a new balanced system in which buildings and trees are sharing rights and obligations. With this we will not competing with the size nor the presence of a large reactor or reduce the value of the ecosystem of a wooded garden at the foot of the buildings." The axonometric shows the surgical insertion of buildings into the wooded landscape. Be sure to check out a bunch more photos here...


:: image via Arch Daily

Another 2008 competition, theWorkspace Group Urbantine Project showed a couple of the runners-up showed interesting ideas spanning the abstract to literal vegetative integration (via Bustler). An excerpt of the brief, via WGUP: "We want you to tackle the issue of rapid change in the 21st century workplace, such as the phenomenal rise in the use of digital technology and its impact on our work and office environments. Tremendous claims are made as to its possible effect on our communication, social interaction, mobility, productivity and creativity."


:: Ocean ‘Minimal Membrane Tent’, UK- image via Bustler


:: CGC ‘The Mountain’, Denmark - image via Bustler

And another via BDonline - the Urban Splash Lex Walsall competition - part of a mixed use development. A number of interesting vegetated details from the finalists.


:: Kirkland Frasier Moor - image via BDonline


:: Jacobs Architects - image via BDonline


:: Flacq - image via BDonline

One I neglected to show back a few months when it hit the scene - Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects design for San Francisco's Transbay Terminal. It's worth a few pics. My favorite from Mad Architect's comment stream, if you scroll down a bit, was from 'boyo' with the astute and to the point - 'my arse it will look like that'...






:: images via Mad Architect

And finishing with some smaller-scale examples, spanning the hobbitesque to the silly (is that really a continuum of any sort...) Enjoy!


:: Maison Baggins - via Treehugger


:: Green the Bus Shelter - via Life Without Buildings


:: Green the Mailbox - via The Design Blog


:: Paint is cheaper tha Plants - via anArchitecture

Veg.Arch Daily

Definitely take some time to check out a new(?) blog [at least to me] ArchDaily - with rich content related to Architecture with some really great features - including many, many pictures. I've had only a chance to take a peek (and look at another ranking of 'Architecture' sites - which I'm again pissed not be on... ;) but have definitely put it on the RSS feed (and you'll find it on the Blog Check as well.)



A project with some great imagery and ideas by FOA, is the Meydan - Umraniye Retail Complex & Multiplex with some of the most extensive rooftop greening I've seen - plus... it's built, and still stunning.




:: images via ArchDaily

From the site, some info: "The building anticipates through its geometry and circulation strategy its subsequent integration into a dense inner city context aiming to formulate an alternative prototype to the usual out-of-town retail box development. The provision of underground car parking is a major part of this strategy, liberating substantial amount of ground floor space to be used for landscaped areas and a new urban square in the centre of the scheme."






:: images via ArchDaily

The contexual design of opening up green space is often talked about, but rarely realized on such a scale. Again from ArchDaily: "The central square is activated though a number of new pedestrian routes, linking the underground car park to the ground level and accessible from the wider city context though two new routes across the roofscape. All roofs are covered with extensive vegetation and connected to the surrounding topography at several points, trying to use the volume as an extension of the existing topography rather than as a container deployed onto an asphalt platform for vehicular access." Light is provided via slitted wells cut into the green fabric.



As I mentioned, the highest marks come from the quality and quantity of project images... too often blogs want to explain a project with excessive verbage - when literally a picture, which may or not be worth a 1000 words, but is pretty damn close. This project happens to be quite photogenic as well. A number of sites could take a few cues from ArchDaily...






:: images via ArchDaily

And even some site plans:



:: images via ArchDaily

While I may disagree with ArchDaily's 'best' blog lineup (that's the point right...?) I will put this one in my top 10 for sure.

More Pop-Up Park

A few more images of the recently opened Pop-up Park courtesy of Susannah Drake from dlandstudio. It's obviously a popular spot - and it's probably not just to see the Waterfalls.






:: images via Susannah Drake, dlandstudio

Susannah said people are particularly excited by the haybale plantings - and I imagine they will be more so after the plants have a little time to take off. I like this inventive planter for it's ease and ephemeral style (no non-recyclable parts here) - as well as the reclaimed trashcan planter below...




:: images via Susannah Drake, dlandstudio

Stupid Furniture Tricks

Catchy title, no? OK, there's some fun things out there that make you do a double take, aside from the inventive planter or two... A few recent ones:

The first, via Designboom is a flexible bench by Giulio Iacchetti: "Flexible bench is a special seat for urban furnishings. through the rotation of the seat/seat back it becomes a shelter, a sort of roof that protects from the summer’s blistering heat, from the bad weather and as a night shelter. A project dedicated to those who arrive in the city and don’t have a place to stay."

:: images via Designboom

Another from a post by Treehugger, the the stupid designation from a LED lit bench: "Almost an art object, the Light Bench creates the right presence in creative and communicative environments. Again thanks to its LED lighting technology it only requires about 95 watts of electric power which keeps operating costs down and protects the environment. ... Protects the environment? By sucking 95 watts to light a plastic bench?"

:: image via Treehugger

Another version of the kiosk/seat - modeled on a natural form. This one - Parasolar, from The Design Blog: "This is where biomimcry comes in and a brilliant implementation of the technology can be seen in the Parasolar green public seating concept created by industrial designer Parth Sharma. Based on the design of blossoming flowers, the Parasolar uses solar panels integrated in the design’s pivoted shades that open and close according to sunlight to power the structure and with in-built rain sensors, can also act like an automated rain shelter."

:: images via The Design Blog

From Treehugger, Vertical Patio by Seattle's Pique Architecture: "This back yard patio situated on a small urban lot in Seattle provided an opportunity to explore how a very simple and contained architecture can animate a space and continually surprise and engage its owners."

:: images via Treehugger

And finally - from the recently quiet My Urban Garden Deco Guide, a briefcase travelling fireplace... toasty.

:: image via MUGDG

Wave Cloud Tree Zoo

Not random word association, Wave Cloud Tree Zoo is one of three finalists in a competition for the NY Aquarium at Coney Island. The collaboration between WRT & Cloud 9 Architecture (along with a host of others) envisions a verdant and sinuous waterfront...

:: image via Wave Cloud Tree Zoo

Here's a project description with a bad online translation edited a bit for excessive silliness, via Cloud9: "The Aquarium exists between the people the marine environment - surrounded with haze, salt spray, the sun, and shade. The design creates a bony structure that rises from the perimeter of the Aquarium and the space forms an arch. The structure is minimal, as the structures is iconic of Coney Island. It stays lifted by pulleys of steel and is covered with a network of cables with more than 40.000 LED lights. These solar lights change color every night, according to the energy captured from the sun during the day. The network interacts with the surface of the Aquarium just as with the skin of a fish: it breathes, moves, communicates with the light and the reflexes, filters, protects and regulates the temperature. Actually, it is a series of artificial skins of tiles similar to scales; ascending green surfaces; lenticular images in movement, enormous, dynamic; sound surrounding ambience; facilities are interactive. A water system shapes waves for the whole network, creating a humid network that one likens to an Aquarium."

I assume this is the gist - as I believe I've got most of the high points - the biggest being the move to make the building skin similar to fish scales, both in texture and luminesence. Cool idea. The following is a diagram of some of the materials as applied to the 'web' - and some vertical greenery as well.








:: images via Wave Cloud Tree Zoo

Spotted: Pay Phone Planter

We've all seen them, although less and less with the popularity of cell phones - the ubitquitous phone booth. Recently on a site visit, I was walking by an adjacent property and spied some great makeshift plastic planters. I'd been looking at prefab products to use for rooftop agriculture, so did a double-take on these.

:: overall composition - image by Jason King

It took a moment or two to realize that the cryptic lettering on the side was in fact a silouhette of a telephone, and that these planters were in fact casings from exterior phones.

:: closeup - image by Jason King

The following day, I noticed this remnant of the original style along MLK Jr. Boulevard here in Portland... they do still exist...

:: image via Jason King

I can't actually remember the last time I saw one of these in action, as they've been replaced by either the more boxy variety, or removed altogether. Here's the closest photo via the web that I found (and it was a tough to track even this image down).

:: image via Payphone Depot

Although the newer models seem to work as well - plus many of them have the phones already missing. The phone shaped 'weepholes' along the side would allow for some supplemental drainage perhaps?

:: image via College Publisher

So for quick and easy planters - and adaptive reuse of materials - it's a good idea to keep your eyes open for sustainable possibilities. Another idea we were kicking around was the switch from the ubiquitous Portland yellow recycle bins to bigger multi-use bins, which will inevitably give us a surplus of these bad boys - which are ready for the garden or rooftop ag... with handles and drainage holes...

:: image via Oregonlive

And another example, predominately along NE Alberta, the form of trashcan liberation, where the old exposed aggregate clunker, mostly painted in bright colors, sometimes artfully broken as well - is transformed into a small urban garden... awwwww.

:: image via Jason King

And my favorite, from Hopworks Urban Brewery, one that celebrates one of Portland's major industry... (actually these are imported Iron City beer kegs from Pittsburg) - cheers!

:: image via Oregonlive