Tree/House

There's a few posts out showing off a variety of actual treehouses, but what fun is that. I thought a sampling of projects of the theme would be much more informative. Just for kicks, here's my favorite, a more refined method for the discerning tree-sitter, from Web Urbanist:

:: image via Web Urbanist

For spotting that perfect species and crook in which to hang your hat (or home) a new book on trees, with a simple yet effective title: 'Trees: A Visual Guide'. From the publisher: "Beautifully illustrated and designed, this gorgeous reference book explores the world of trees from every perspective--from the world's great forests to the lifespan of a single leaf."

:: image via Amazon

A form of interior landscapes from Dezeen, or just a couple of ways of inflicting cruelty to some poor plant. A coat-rack by Swedish designers Form us With Love use branches to form the 'Prosthes hanger'. From Dezeen: "In medicine, a prosthesis is an artificial extension that replaces a missing body part. In this hanger, the prosthesis are what you have at home, may it be a hockey stick, a broom or a spare branch." I'm sorry, but you just don't have a 'spare' branch around - uh, you have to cut something off or down for that to happen.

:: image via Dezeen

And a set of lights using dried leaves by Israeli designer Tomer Sapir bridging the span between life and death. These are really nice:

:: image via Dezeen

This overgrown monster, yikes! is a restaurant in Japan, in the 'form of...' a banyan tree. Wonder twins, power, activate! I don't know what's more funny, the project itself or the random writeup in The Design Blog.

:: image via The Design Blog

Public Farm 1: Work Architecture Company

While aiming not to be redundant with other resources out there, I just really like this project quite a bit, and have to expand on the previous post. 'Public Farm 1' is the Young Architects Program at PS 1 Project by Work Architecture Company has been covered extensively by a number of sources: originally the NY Times, then Pruned, World Architecture News, Architectural Record, and others that a search would inevitably turn up.


:: image via NY Times

The NY Times article 'Betting a Farm Would Work in Queens', offered the insights on the motivations of the architecture team (Work Architecture Company = Dan Wood and Amale Andraos): derived from the French notion of "...'Sur les paves la ferme,' meaning, “Over the pavement, the farm.” In the architect's words:

Andraos: “We wanted to find what our generation’s symbol would be, embodying our preoccupations, our hopes for the world.” ... "For us it’s an opportunity to create an exciting structure, but also to talk about issues and ideas — to be engaged with the world.”




:: images via WAN

For a more expansive theoretical view of the approach, check out Work's website. The concept, in a nutshell, via Architectural Record:

"Although the design calls for a productive food garden, this will not be your standard back-yard set-up: Public Farm 1 will soar to 30 feet above the ground. The contemporary art museum has two adjacent courtyards, each enclosed by 20-foot high concrete walls. Dropped into the larger courtyard, the garden’s folded plane will form a V-shape whose two raised wings shade the spaces below. The larger wing will perch itself on the concrete wall and reach over the adjacent courtyard, providing a roof for what the architects dub the “Funderneath” side, adding an unexpected flying garden to the skyline. Columns supporting the overhead garden will delineate different programs, among them a juicing station and cell phone charging area. A “Kid’s Grotto” will be located under the smaller wing and a small wading pool is planned for the point where garden and ground converge."




:: images via WAN

Compelling design, both in simplicity and form - as well as the overall idea.

Looking at the detail more closely the project. Again, from Architectural Record: "The architects will create the installation’s structure by bolting together sections of durable cardboard cylinders. Collectively, like a honeycomb platter, these cylinders will form a massive folded plane. Each cylinder will hold a certain plant. WORK hopes to create a pattern whereby six tubes of the same plant will encircle one empty cylinder. This pattern will heighten the visual impact and allow crews to ascend into the garden to tend it through the open spaces."


:: image via WAN

The cardboard 'superstructure' will be infilled with a variety of plants. A look at the detail below illuminates some of the complexity underlying the simple idea. Tubes will be shimmed together with sheet metal to avoid tearing when bolted together. A perforated strip of MDF will be installed to provide a planting pocket, which will be lined with a product called Magna Moist Organic Planter Lining (of which I could find no info). Soils, irrigation, and plants will finish off the 'cells'.


:: image via WAN

The planting palette is geared towards 'urban garden', with a mix of vegetables, herbs, and fruits, with an eye toward production as well as consumption - on-site. There's talk of a PS 1 beer made from hops grown on site, as well as use of other materials for cocktails - or sale at a local farmer's market. I'm a little skeptical of the actual productivity of this system - especially with a season of watering, rain, wind - all perilous additions to even the most well lined waxed cardboard system.

Alexander Trevi from Pruned made an astute point on this approach, in the Landscape Urbanism evolutionary approach: "Though the current proposal involves a canopy-like structure, the total program will largely depend on continually shifting, real-time conditions. Rather than to a prescribed set of formulas, the space will be finely attuned to the weather, pollution, the disintegration rate of materials and uncertainty."


:: image via Architectural Record

Contrasting this to the 2007 winner of the PS 1 competition, from Ball-Nogues Studio, entitled 'Liquid Sky' - a much more architectural solution, a more artistic, less funky idea:


:: image via Architectural Record

Part of the appeal right now, is that a group of architects and landscape architects with the Portland AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) have the honor of designing this years Festival of Flowers display in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square. This ephemeral design and blending architecture and landscape in a public space is an interesting concept to explore as a designer. While not as long-lived as PS 1 project will be, the idea of this temporary installation that is compelling and interesting in a public space even for a few weeks. Stay tuned for more on this.


:: Aerial view of past Festival - image via Pioneer Courthouse Square

Veg.itecture: S, M, L, XL

I will eventually run out of witty, thematic ways of presenting Vegetated Architecture (ok, I may already have), but in the interim, a selection of projects in a range of sizes (with apologies to Koolhaas + Mau). Of the precedents previously shown on L+U, architecture and landscape combinations range from the modest to the extreme, and these are no exception.

S: A small-scale version of a indoor planting system, via Treehugger of student work in 'eco-innovation' at the Royal College of Art. One project, entitled Verticulture, is a frame of planters with integrated irrigation, designed for urban gardens. The product site envisions the product as 'the future of vertical gardening'. I don't know if I'd go that far, but it's kind of hip in that Bucky Fuller kinda way.


:: image via Treehugger

M: a modest rooftop garden for the Diane von Fürstenberg Studio in NYC by recent media sensations Work Architects. Found on Atelier A+D, the rooftop spaces are integrated with a columnar lightwell to bring sunlight into multiple floors throughout the space. Work Architects are quickly becoming one of my favorites (and two weeks ago, I had never even heard of them).






:: images via Atelier A+D

L At the larger scale, a recent complement to the Caixa Forum building and the implementation of rusted corten panels. In this case, the Cremorne Riverside Centre in London UK, Sarah Wigglesworth created boxes of of steel to house a canoeing club on the Thames. It's interesting to see the mixed reviews of the building, from users and media (particularly a heated exchange on the Dezeen comment forum)




:: images via BDonline

Now we may ask how this meets the idea of Veg.itecture? Well, I have yet to see an actual example of this on the above building, but it has been reported that it contains 'brown' roofs, which consist of building rubble and other aggregate (with minimal planting and other items that provide habitat for a UK native bird species, the Black Redstart. From BDonline: "The roof is EPDM covered with demolition rubble, all of which was kept on site, which is intended to encourage the insect and spider life vital to sustain rare bird species."

I'm planning a post of green/blue/brown rooftops, where I will elaborate on the differences. Below is an example of another unrelated 'brown' rooftop, similar to what is described on the Cremorne Building. This, is, large!


:: image via Urban Habitats

XL While not oversize by Foster standards, our final super-size version is of vegetated architecture, picks up or thread (albeit loosely) of habitat via brown rooftops. The new zoological park in Vincennes, France, as covered wonderfully in BLDGBLOG in the post 'Simulated Environments for Animals' by the firm of Beckmann N'Thepe Architects. The creation, according to BLDGBLOG, includes six ecosystems or 'biozones' which "...include the savannah, the equatorial African rain forest, Patagonia, French Guiana, Madagascar, and Europe. Also included are a range of artificial topographies, which create a unique environment, as well as opportunities for interactivity for the visitors.




:: images via BLDGBLOG

While zoos have a long and sordid history (and a wide range of ethical dilemmas) there is a couple of ways of looking at this. One is to view all zoos as evil and inhumane, in which there is no way to create a positive project. The second is a stance that zoological parks are necessary for protection of certain species, providing us with a valuable connection with nature, and that when created humanely with appropriate knowledge of habitat necessary are a valuable asset to humanity. If you adhere to the second view, this project looks to be an exemplar of the landscape project type.




:: images via BLDGBLOG

The size and range of vegetated architecture project ranges from the personal to the global. We find opportunities in details, projects, and landscape types - to provide gardening in small urban spaces, for the creation of poetry amidst the urban fabric, for specialized urban habitats - either for native species, or for those captive in a foreign environment. The common thread is simple - plants.