Veg.itecture: VIVA Evolo Skyscrapers

Nothing elicits more interesting ideas and visuals than a futuristic and visionary design competition for the 21st Century Skyscraper. That has one word: eVolo. I featured a few of the entries from last years competition - so thought I would do the same for the more veg.itectural (and there are many, as pointed out in Pruned in the form of the vegetal zeitgeist) of this years entries. What better way to get a pulse on the trends in architecture, landscape and urbanism? Click the image links for the full boards, and check out the remaining entries from this and previous years at the eVolo site.

FIRST PLACE - NeoARC
by Kyu Ho Chun - Kenta Fukunishi - JaeYoung Lee

:: images via eVolo

SECOND PLACE - The Living Bridge

by Nicola Marchi - Adelaïde Marchi

:: images via eVolo

SPECIAL MENTIONS

BioCity

by Stefan Shaw - John Dent

:: images via eVolo

Nature of Nature
by Luis Longhi - Christian Bottger - Carla Tamariz

:: images via eVolo

Standing on the Ground

by Park Ju Sin - Lee Min Cheol

:: images via eVolo

Farm3
by Fabrice Henninger - Alexander Dabringhausen

:: images via eVolo

Urban Nebulizer
by Jae Kyu Han - Sang Mi Park - Ji Hyun KimWoo - Young Park - Kyoung Ho Lee

:: images via eVolo

ADDENDA

Finally, our friends at Urbanarbolismo garnered some acclaim as one of the 40 finalists to be published with their proposal for a cadre of tree-derived towers in the Mediterranean climate of the city of Benidorm. Read the full scoop at their site (translation here).

:: images via Urbanarbolismo

Veg.itecture: VIVA Vision City + Nessie

Two proposals for vertical greening from Asia push some of the buttons and boundaries of our continually uneasy relationship with representation over implementation (the subject of the ongoing VIVA series).


:: not dumb boxes - image via designboom

VISION CITY
First, via Designboom, the Vision City proposal from sparch architects envisions a gargantuan a retail mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.




:: images via Designboom

Via designboom: "...they cut the central portion of the new building to create a hybrid space—a voluminous garden naturally ventilated but sheltered from the elements—that is an extension of the urban fabric. with the originally planned hermetic air-conditioned box now drawing the streetscape into its carved out volume, vision city deviates from the mould of the ubiquitous modern mall, engaging more directly its immediate surroundings, physically as well as visually, to realize the urban rejuvenation that its developers and urban planners are envisioning for the neighbourhood."


:: image via Designboom

The sections tell the best story of the project process, including green roofs and interior atria for microclimatic effect.




:: image via Designboom

My favorite visual has to be the faceted green wall (below) - offering an enveloping bowl of greenery to the interior spaces, and some dynamic vistas from within.


:: image via Designboom

NESSIE
Second, a design from SEIWOOO's Alban Mannisi, along with Pierre Alex providing 3-D Rendering for Nessie: Vertical Territoriality, the Green Water City - Quingpu, Shanghai, China – 2009




:: images via SEIWOOO

From SEIWOOO: "The growth of cities, their influences and the mask which they define on the whole grounds must be reconsidered. Extending a city should be no longer at the expense of arable land. Economic concerns that guide the new urban issues must be able to coincide with the same concerns that have established practices for cultivation before the development of cities. NESSIE project newly supplies the territory with oxygen thanks to the built towers which take place at the heart of the history of the territory. The towers have an open-aired column in their centers which allow oxygenation to go to the lower layer. Oxygenation, development of bacteria in these old asphyxiated strata, it can regenerate a necessary ecosystem to the superficial layers where life and vegetation grow. Groundwater, regulations, redevelopment, their bacteriological regulations in an autonomous way. And it can provide a healthy home to human activities, flora and fauna to immersed areas around the extension of the new town."

:: images via

SEIWOOO

The visuals seem to speak for themselves... thoughts anyone on what they are saying?

Planting Air: Thigmotrope

One can't help but be impressed by the creativity of landscape professionals in coming up with inventive new ways to express the concept of vertical greenery. The latest, spotted via Land+Living and later picked up on ASLA's blog The Dirt - this link to a NY Times article shows the use of varieties of Tillandsia, more commonly known as air plants, to create a dynamic interior green wall at the Bardessono Hotel in Yountville, California (i.e. Napa). Using an idea that every vertical greenery designer should be award of, Thigmotropism, which is "...the phenonomenon by which a living organism grows towards a supporting structure," the designers attached said Tillandsia to metal rods allowing them to float away from the wall in a light and dare I say 'airy' way.




:: images via NY Times

While the NY Times hails the uses of soil-less epiphytes as a 'new' solution (Patrick Blanc would politely disagree, I gather) this project does use the solution in a beautiful and appropriate way. "The vertical garden, a striking substitute for wasteful displays of cut flowers, was produced through a collaboration by Flora Grubb, a landscape designer; her fiancé, Kevin Smith; and Seth Boor, an architect. Because it was conceived fairly late in the building process, there was no way to include irrigation infrastructure, so the drought-tolerant plants are misted by hose every few days."

:: additional images via Land+Living

There isn't any irrigation, so the plants are watered via hand misting... usings a minimal amount of irrigation. And in typical fashion, it looks like the designers and builder are inching towards some movement towards packaging with their site Thigmotrope... although I've always thought that the marketing genius of a garden store owner and landscape designer named Flora Grubb was a pretty good stroke of wit, and a lot more sexy of a concept that Thigmotropism... call it destiny.

:: final image w/ designers - via Thigmotropism

Veg.itecture: VIVA Conceptual 2

Part 2 of the Conceptual Veg.itecture in Visual Assessment (VIVA), showing off some of the latest representations of building greenery on the web. I'm holding onto the Evolo Skyscraper winners, as well as a proposal for a modern vegetated 'vision city' for their own posts... In the interim, here's the latest representations...

Extreme Birding - Morris Architects






:: images via SpaceInvading

“Missing Matrix” Seoul, Korea by Mass Studies




:: images via Urban Greenery

Abundant Amelia, London, United Kingdom by dallaspierce+quintero


:: image via WAN

EcoCoon - Mathier Collos




:: images via Inhabitat

Michelle Kaufmann Goes Urban


:: image via Treehugger

Living Art - Urban Landscape Group


:: image via Contemporist

Castle Cove House by Terroir




:: images via Terroir + Archimafia

Urban Plant, US - by Ellen Depoorter






:: images via World Architecture

King's Cross Central, London by Allies and Morrison




:: images via WAN

Pedestrian Overpass: NatureBridge - from GreenCorridor


:: image via Urban Greenery

Sony "Home" virtual platform


:: image via WAN

360° Building, São Paulo, Brazil




:: images via WAN

Goldhawk Road in London by Peter Barber Architects




:: images via Dezeen