Veg.itecture: Defining Moments

Vegetated Architecture (aka Veg.itecture, VegArch, Building/Landscape Fusion) is a common theme on L+U. The working definition of this fusion of architecture and landscape has been swirling around in the back of my brain for some time, and I thought it appropriate to give some further definition of what this is.


:: Terreform Treehouse - image via Inhabitat

While Terreform's 'Fab Tree Hab' is perhaps a futuristic example, the main point is a definite departure from more commonly used individual strategies such as green roofs, rooftop gardens, and living walls. Also significnat is the degree to which these elements are integrated, both visually and functionally, into the building form. Simply, Vegetated Architecture consists of a few simple elements:

1. Using vegetation as a primary component of the building skin and roof systems.
2. Creating usable site area in urban development by implementing landscaping on structure.
3. Blurring the lines between interior and exterior spaces through design.
4. Use of these strategies for environmental and social benefits (i.e. heat island reduction, smog/particulate reduction, air quality, stormwater management, microclimatic shading, food production)

This is a working definition, so please comment and help shape this thinking. It is gleaned from past and recent project examples that illustrate these points. It's a old/new phenomenon - much like many green strategies, there are historic precendents. Similar to the green roof phenomenon in the early 2000's there is a lot of talk and energy (and proposed projects) that are pushing from simple green adornment to this new fusion of Vegetated Architecture. The following expands these ideas to develop a vocabulary of typologies:

One notable form of Vegetated Architecture is 'facade articulation'. This goes beyond merely attaching panels of green screen with vines, to integrating vegetation into the entire building form, as a aesthetic strategy, but also to provide microclimatic cooling and seasonal variation. The vegetated form becomes another material for building skin. The proposed 110 Embarcadero Building in San Francisco, featured on the always fantastic Jetson Green, is a fine example of this step towards integration.



:: images via Jetson Green

A varient of above is the more intensive method of 'roof greening', strategies that incorporate facade and rooftop with vegetation that is visible from the street in other ways as well as providing amenity space for users.


:: image via Birnbeck Island Competition

Not as much visual amenity as functional (although it can be both) is the idea of 'roof gardening'. Folding in aspects of urban agriculture for expanded food production in the urban realm. A 2007 ASLA award-winner for affordable housing in San Francisco, by Andrea Cochran LA, named the Curran House, is a good example.


:: image via ASLA

The work of Patrick Blanc outlines another strategy, that of 'vertical gardens'. Rather than articulation of a buildings facade or wall area, the vegetation becomes the primary skin material. There has been much adoration of this technique, and you can see why.


:: image via Inhabitat

The 'vertical filter' concept is a feature of vertical gardens that is applicable indoors and out. Indoors a growing body of stunning interior landscapes provide environmental and air quality benefits alongside the obvious aesthetic gains.


:: image via Manhattan Plant Experts

Another form of Vegetated Architecture is 'site insertion'. This new casino proposal in New Jersey, found on Places and Spaces, highlights a version of vegetated architecture in it's sinous swoopy rooftop gardens. The gardens are not ancillary spaces tacked onto the building, but rather are meshed into the overall structure, being viewed from pedestrian level, as well as from above - and creating site context in urban areas.


:: image via Places and Spaces

Much veers into an abstraction of 'vegetative forms' including art, artifice, and subtlety that connect interiors and exteriors, or evoking organic and natural forms without using real plants. Featured here previously subset, albeit a powerful one, of the Veg.itecture idea - these strategies are definitely viable and have long historical roots. A few examples from recent projects:


:: image via Andrew Maynard Architects

The vegetative function as 'microclimatic modifiers' using plants is a final strategy, previously discussed in relation to Net-Zero Homes. Simply in means using plantings on site, adjacent to buildings, to provide and expand environmental controls for the building, such as reducing solar gain in summer, and allowing sunlight to penetrate for heat gain in winter. Another strategy involves using evergreens or buffers to mitigate prevailing winds.


:: image via Colorado State Univ. Extension Service

In summary, there are specific goals for Vegetated Architecture that range from the environmental to the aesthetic, with most projects finding a place somewhere along this continuum. In addition, a typology of forms has begun to evolve, with specific strategies emerging from this work. This include facade articulation, roof greening & gardening, vertical gardens & filters, site insertion, microclimate modifiers and abstraction of natural forms. In total, i'd say we're on the verge of a movement, and I could not be more excited to see the future.

Vegetated Architecture

New terms, or juxtaposition of terms, continually occur in the design dialogue. Sometimes these provide language for describing something new - a technology, process or approach. Other times, this language provides a new use of terms that gives resonance for a fresh approach to something old. Terms like living buildings, civic ecology, living architecture, natural building, cradle-to-cradle and eco-architecture are all natural variations on the concept of sustainability. The fact that we have adopted and perhaps transcended the basic conceptual framework of sustainability as somewhat status quo, leads us to continue to reinvent new terms or co-opt old ones as ways to explain our specific approachs. With this comes new ways of outward expression in tow.

It's an interesting phenomenon, mentioned in Landscape Urbanism previously, that architecture has adopted landscape as a new medium. The distinct line between building and landscape has thinning the point of transparency. This new term is vegetated architecture, which is specifically the focus of much of this blog, is simply a blurring of the line between landscape and architecture. This offers a number of benefits, added value for the overall aesthetic and function. While used for design purposes, often as an ambiguous green face, applied as skin or roof. While the values of green roofs and living walls are summarized elsewhere, there is the need to ground this approach not just in terms of ecological systems or high-design strategies, but as the two mutually beneficial idealogies at work in tandem to create sustainable and visually stunning projects.

A few recent examples to further elaborate on the idea of vegetated architecture:

This project, recently featured on Inhabitat, is the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The green roofs provide environmental benefits, as well as accessible open space for informal gatherings. The monoculture of grass is a uniform 'green mantle' as well, although perhaps not the most sustainable material.


:: image via Inhabitat

Suspended greens, by Architect Taketo Shimohigoshi, a winner of a 2007 AR emerging architecture award, complete with moss-covered overhead structures in Tokyo:


::image via G-Living Network

A full interior/exterior landscape fusion by Shigeru Ban Architects for a vertically oriented Swatch store in Japan. The Nicholas G. Hayek Center is described as an urban oasis with living walls, trees, and planters spanning multiple floors.


:: image via Jetson Green

While none of these ideas are specifically new, there seems to be significant amounts of traction related to the concept in architecture the past few years - giving rise to more edgy design and experimentation with technology and form. Expanding on simple themes of green roof, living wall, these designs imply a more holistic approach to the inclusion and melding of buildings landscape, as well as not being marginalized as eco-driven or 'natural' design strategies. Significant projects seem to be localized around Europe and Asia, particularly France and Japan, although there are many more daily examples of vegetated architecture worldwide. Perhaps this is the 21st Landscape.

Veg.itecture: #19

aka. The Pooktre Vegitectural Prize Awarded

Well, all the lobbying for Jean Nouvel as one of the pre-emininent Veg.itects of our time has paid off with the recent announcement that he was recently awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize for 2008. While not as prestigious as aforementioned PVP, congrats are in order all the same.


:: image via NY Times

A review and acknowledgement that there are is a long line of storied architects whom have claimed this prize. Vegetated Architecture is not on the list of requirements, but fit nicely into the overall theme: "The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize is to honor annually a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture."

His most known work of Veg.itecture is the oft-viewed Musee du Quai Branly in Paris. From the NY Times overview of the Pritzker award: "The bulk of Mr. Nouvel’s commissions work has been in Europe however. Among the most prominent is his Quai Branly Museum in Paris (2006), an eccentric jumble of elements including a glass block atop two columns, some brightly colorful boxes, rust-colored louvers and a vertical carpet of plants. “Defiant, mysterious and wildly eccentric, it is not an easy building to love,” Mr. Ouroussoff wrote in The Times."

One building in the US I did get to see and like (but was frankly underwhelmed by the landscape architecture) was the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, perched on the revitalized waterfront and making a bold statement for somewhat hum-drum prairie design. Not Veg.itecture, but a fine and tangible personal Nouvel project.


:: Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN - image via NY Times

So as we celebrate Nouvel, we turn our attention to some of the recent Vegetated Architecture that is changing the face of the dual intertwined professions of landscape + architecture. Some notable additions to delicately place on foam, stick pins neatly skewering the corners, and a curt, hand-written label to the side.

So perhaps my heavy-handed allusion to specimen collecting was not lyrical enough to preface the announcment of 'The Worlds Biggest Butterfly House' happening in the UK, as reported on Treehugger. The project looks somewhat funky (perhaps just representational, as the buff colored materail reminds me of kitty litter) with it's geodesic dome and earth-sheltered pupae, nestled into the landscape of meadows and gardens. Probably something only a butterfly or Bucky Fuller could love.


:: image via Treehugger

The next project has a striking form, and has the press-cred to warrant lots of exposure... as well as some subtle integration of building and landscape in poetic and functional ways. Via Inhabitat, the design for Precinct 4, by Studio Nicoletti Associati and Malaysian architects Hijjas Kasturi Associates, "...is a refreshing and original with unique, marine-inspired structures - which also draw from traditional Islamic designs - arranged in a permeable, radiating block of bioclimatic architecture."




:: images via Inhabitat

The use of bioclimatic architecture makes us thing fondly for our other Veg.itecture pioneer, Ken Yeang, whose extensive use of vegetation as environmental strategy has defined the theory for architects such as these to follow. The use of indiginous forms and strategies derived from place and climate are vital to proper melding of these two concepts. Shifting to a neighboring region of Hong Kong, Dezain showcased a link to Hong Kong Jockey Club and their Central Police HQ by Herzog & de Meuron (Pritzker winners, as well). Not quite the same as the typical cop-shop in the US...




:: images via HKJC

A new building on World Architecture News in London by Renzo Piano (a Pritzker alum) knocked me over with a smashing green facade (until i realized it was merely a green wall of ceramic and glass, un-vegetated). Oh well, it's a nice thought. The project didn't disappoint, with a wonderfully rendered (if someone monocultural) rooftop terrace to more than make up for my disappointment.




:: images via WAN

While we're talking Starchitects and former Pritzker winners, a new one in LA by Frank Gehry has vegetation toppling down a cascade of building forms. Following our recent post on significant Los Angeles open spaces - this submittal include park connectivity as a major feature. From World Architecture News: "Also to be improved as part of the project is the existing County Mall, which will be transformed into a 16-acre park stretching from the Music Center at the top of Bunker Hill to City Hall at the bottom of the Hill. The park will become the new "Central Park" of Los Angeles and will be the scene of many citywide celebrations as well as daily events."


:: image via WAN

And to shift gears somewhat - and pick up a much earlier thread of growing your own Treehouse - growing your own park structure. Via Treehugger, a company named Plantware's approach: "...is known as tree shaping, arborsculpture, living art or pooktre."

Pooktre? I thought we were talking about Pritzker? Anyway, I gotta remember that one for Scrabble anyway. A notable quoate from Treehugger by Plantware CEO explains the inspiration: "A fantasy about building houses from living trees, inspired by the ficus tree, whose roots create amazing forms. We discovered a way to control the direction in which a tree grows, which can be used to grow structures that will be useful and environmentally-friendly." If you have the time, I'd definitely recommend it.


:: image via Treehugger

This is definitely not a new phenomenon, as Treehugger points out. On a related note - pooktre pioneer Axel Erlandson from California: "...started shaping trees in 1925, and by the late 1940's opened up "The Tree Circus," a tourist attraction which has now been transplanted to an amusement park in Gilroy, California."


:: image via Arborsmith Studios

Time to play, veg.itect style. I bet Nouvel would love these... and what's next, the Pooktre Vegitectural Prize? Why not?

Veg.itecture: World Tour

Vegetated Architecture seems to be a world-wide phenomenon... although there are slow-growing pools of recent US examples, the trend has evolved outside of the states as a significant part of the architectural vocabulary. A number of recent projects and terms (i.e. cybertecture) underscore this point and highlight the unprecedented customization and access to information we have. These all offer a range of greening, from the sprinkling on top to the significant vegetated statement - and the virtual world tour begins:

Departure Dubai:

Where else for experimental vegetation and shape-shifting architecture? Found via io9, the Shuffle Building by James Law Cybertecture takes on the static nature of architecture by imploying mechanical systems that rotate and reshuffle the spaces to allow for changing views and form... with vegetated flourishes, this time in in elevated circular platters (I assume that rotate?) called 'communal sky gardens'.

:: image via io9

Staying put in Dubai (as there is lots to see) and continuing the work of James Law Cybertecture, two recent projects via World Architecture News. Not quite as malleable as the previous project, Megawave does allow many units to have ocean views via a crenulated facade and scissor-form layout. Quoted via WAN, with the "...intention of bringing the rhythm of a wave onto land."


:: image via WAN

Followed with formalistically similar Pixel Tower, "...Inspired by moving bubbles within a Champagne glass, the Pixel Tower is designed as a 21st Generation X tower for the young and trendy of Dubai."


:: image via WAN

Travel Interlude: Cybertecture
These projects, along with James Law got me thinking about the coining of the term 'Cybertecture'... which is somewhat Gibsonian in reference - so as we travel, let's discuss what this means, as I am a sucker for new term and concepts (read: adding Veg- to the from of any common architectural term). According to their website... "...the core Cybertecture vision of the world, in which the now and future world is designed and created inspired in a symbiotic balance between space and technology."

Continuing, a further explanation in we make money not art: "Cybertecture environments are hybrids designed from the inside out and they rely on technology to give the space intelligence needed to interact with its users. He created the concept in 2001." A fantastic post in Eikongraphia discusses the concept in relation to the firm's 'I-Pad' building, which is pretty much what it sounds like - a building that looks like a giant I-Pod. The concept of cybertecture quoted via Eikongraphia: "...means – according to the interiors he decorated until this project – installing a lot of colorful lamps, displays, interactivity, etc. The nineties are coming back, it seems."

I'm unsure if this is the complete definition, but came away much more educated. I wonder how the analog nature of growing physical live plants mesh with the precision of the digital realm of cybertecture... do they conflict or reinforce one another? I guess I am ready to take this concept into my destination... James Laws home base in Hong Kong.

Starchitecture in Hong Kong:
The severe angles of Libeskind are barely muted with the thin tracery of vegetation atop the Creative Media Center, built for the University of Hong Kong. A minute shrubby zone on the roof is public 'open space' with views of surrounding landscape, which is probably a fitting refugia for having to look at the building (I apologize, I'm still looking for a Libeskind that I like...)




:: images via The Design Blog

Nature in New Zealand
The Hingarae Residence and Resort, via Cool Hunter is more smooth and soft - nestled into the hillside form and elegantly radiused edges. Ok, so it's definitely elitist living and quite out of most normal people's price range - it is fine site planning and building/landscape interaction. No social commentary on this tour stop.




:: images via The Cool Hunter

Green in Göteborg
Some recent work by KjellgrenKaminsky Architecture a Swedish firm, was pointed out via Tropolism - and is one of 4 passive house designs the firm is unveiling. All are simple, with the Villa Atrium offering green roof and central atrium, which use thermal mass and passive techniques for heating and cooling, as well as being formally inventive.


:: image via KjellgrenKaminsky

Plus the firm's site offers some stories that are excellent at evoking the concept: "On the middle of the atrium stands an apple tree. The apples are ripe and looks like red Christmas balls on the tree. I walk out and start picking them, today the whole family will have apple pie for breakfast!"


:: image via KjellgrenKaminsky

Finish-line Frankfurt
I thought I would save this for last, because it really blew me away when I saw it via Dezeen. I really appreciate this blog (and get some great laughs from the comments for projects more often than not!). Part CalAcademy swooping rooftop, part land art - this competition winner by schneider+schumacher Architekten for the Staedel Museum is simply stunning - in simplicity and execution:

:: images via Dezeen

Time to get back to real life Portland... more tours to go, as I've culled a lot of Inhabitat projects from all over - Worldwide and Local - and I just bet this Vegetated Architecture thing will stick around for at least a little while, if only to amuse me. On a serious side, I'm applying for a fellowship to travel and document Vegetated Architecture - so perhaps in the immediate future will be able to offer a little more primary source material as well.

New Vegetated Architecture

As we continue to provide an adequate definition, and sift through example, after example of Vegetated Architecture, there is a seemingly constant barrage of projects evolving and shaping the idea. A quick summary is in order, which I am saving for a later post (which is going to be an upcoming essay for publication).

In the meantime, we continue to spot, sort, store, and convey more examples out into the ether. I've compiled a group of projects that have been waiting in the files for me to get around to looking and organizing. Can't believe I neglected these beauties! Enjoy.

Earth Architecture featured a simple, earthen built project by Proyecto Hornero of a building in Uruguay (wish I had more info, but couldn't get a translation on the site). I reall like the exposed timbers, especially those extending from the green roof to the grounds.


:: image via Earth Architecture

Via BDonline, a new town center plan for Croydon, London UK, design by Will Alsop: "...plans to replace Croydon’s reviled concrete look with a remodelled town centre including a 30-storey version of Cornwall’s Eden Project, an “emerald necklace” of parks, squares and a remodelled flyover and the restoration of the river Wandle 40 years after it was buried in culverts."


:: image via BDonline

And I don't really know what is up with the building facade - but it is compelling... ok, maybe just strange?


:: image via BDonline

Visually interesting, the renderings for 3XN's 'Buen' Cultural Housing in Mandel, Norway - via Architecture.MNP: "The project is described by 3XN as ‘a green blanket that elevates and makes room for the cultural center, and thus integrates it in the surrounding landscape".


:: image via Architecture.MNP

The swooping vegetated rooftop form provides usable space without compromising views: "The undulating roof of the cultural center appears as a rolling hill, sloping upwards from the landscape - giving residents and visitors a usable, central outdoor space on the waterfront. This allows for the the center to occupy the land right on the water, without blocking access to the views and waterfront pedestrian experience."




:: images via Architecture.MNP

Oft-published, the images of Antilla, by Perkins + Will, a 24-story corporate tower in Mumbai. Where to start with this one? First, it is named after a mythical island in the Atlantic. Second, it is built for a billionaire. Third, well, it's pretty green.

In addition to this, there is the concept of Vaastu: "Similar to Feng Shui, the practice orients a building in harmony with energy flows. At Antilia, the overall plan is based on the square, which is Vaastu’s basic geometric unit, and a garden level occupies the tower’s midsection, the point where all energies converge according to the Vaastu Purusha Mandala."


:: image via Architectural Record

A significant feature of the facade, obviously, is the vegetated forms. A description of the approach, quoting P+W design Principal - Ralph Johnson, from Architectural Record:

"Among its interesting elements, Antilia will feature a band of vertical and horizontal gardens that demarcates the tower’s different program elements. A garden level will separate the ground-floor parking and conference center from residential space above, for instance, and the outer walls on certain levels will be sheltered by trellises supporting panels that contain hydroponically grown plants.

"In addition to signaling different space uses and providing privacy, these “vertical gardens” will help shade the building and reduce the urban heat island effect. “You can use the whole wall almost like a tree and increase the green area of the site by five or 10 times over what it would be if you just did a green roof,” Johnson observers. “It’s a prototype for buildings of the future.”


:: image via Architectural Record

A more modest (and local example) from Seattle. Dwell featured 'Chrome Below, Green Above' and a garage-scaled green roof project by architect Rob Harrison.


:: image via Dwell

The final project falls into the artificial and kitsch: Guy Hohmann's work Harmony, is a bench made of ash, plywood, polystyrene, and everyone's favorite, artificial turf.


:: image via MoCo Loco

Veg.itecture #40

I have a folder where I keep upcoming items to disseminate in the intermittent Veg.itecture series - and it usually tops out at 15 or so items before I get around to a weekly or bi-weekly compilation - which make for a somewhat lengthy but manageable post. In this case, today I noticed 50+ items in this folder - which even excludes some of the recent posts of major Veg.itectural project such as the California Academy of Sciences Building, the work of Patrick Blanc, Hundertwasser, a trio of green projects, and some Neo-Vertical Greening to name a few.

So how to deal with such a dilemma? Aside from pulling together an upcoming guest post on WebUrbanist about Vegetated Architecture (stay tuned for that) - I guess it's just time to dive in - perhaps spanning a range of posts over the next week. Where to start? I've been going through a phase of home-envy, so this first project is a really cool one on the NY Times which came via ArchNewsNow for a very green penthouse apartment in NYC - both inside and out.






:: images via NY Times

And a sexy Chicago rooftop garden (i.e. not a green roof) at The Residences at 900 via Jetson Green provides shared amenity space for, I'm guessing, the residents?




:: images via Jetson Green

I don't know if this one is actual vegetated architecture - I just really like the image of Logroño Montecorvo Eco City, Rioja Province, Spain by MVRDV - specifically with the hillside floating up behind the building.


:: image via WAN

Another non-veg example this reminds me of is a recent post from Arch Daily that makes use of the borrowed views of adjacent hillsides at the Glass bottling Plant Cristalchile.




:: images via Arch Daily

Back to the actually vegetated projects - here's some greenwashing at the Nanjing China HQ of Chevron by Perkins+Will. Via WAN: "The architecture represents this process by emphasizing the intersection of the contemporary and traditional. It symbolizes this intersection of global and local by reinventing the vernacular in a contemporary context. ...The zig-zag contemplative path found in traditional Chinese gardens serves as the organizing device for the departments of the headquarters which are broken into five distinct wings. A sloping green roof unifies the massing of the five wings and also covers areas to form roof terraces for employees."


:: image via WAN

One of the more strange examples of vertical greening via Treehugger - a development of green clad floating homes made with recycled polystyrene RexWall.






:: images via Treehugger

BDonline with a blink-or-you-miss-it external green wall next to an entry canopy for a development in the UK, from a project by Pelli Clark Pelli.


:: image via BDonline

And I really like this one from the Parisian La Defense Generali Tower - with some vegetated notches in the facade, via World Architecture News. From the distant views, the only disappointment is there isn't enough of these to really make a significant impact on the facade... the seem like a tacked on afterthought.


:: image via WAN

Even more stunning (at least in representation), is the lobby space with vegetated atrium.




:: images via WAN

A smaller-scale example shows a gem from anArchitecture features the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennial shows the simple structures in illustration and reality: "The pavilion’s exterior is surrounded by 1:1 buildings of greenhouses, an attempt of realizing an idea of the pencil drawings. "These buildings, which are designed with precise structural calculations so they are just barely able to stand, suggest the future possibilities of architecture and therefore pose the basic question: What is architecture? They are extremely delicate greenhouses with an ephemeral physical presence that blend into the environment."




:: images via anArchitecture

And in a final meshing of some interesting visuals - I thought the 56 Leonard Street/HdM project in New York was pretty cool in a Jenga-esque sorta way - but this image kinda cracked me up. The sculpture, by Anish Kapoor - looks like a replay of the Millenium Park Bean (i.e. The Cloud Gate) that had this building unfortunately landed upon - as well as a remnant snippet of the Caixa Forum living wall in the background on the adjacent building.


:: image via Archidose