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.

Representing: Greening Buildings

The methods of representing vegetation on buildings is of vital importance to the acceptance and further expansion of the concept. I'd dare posit that it's also a strategy to create excitement as well as enough realism where this doesn't lead to disappointment when the project is build. In this vein, some representation of projects - via digital, analog, and in-between techniques.

A simple and effective example by Diller Scofido + Renfro shows a hybrid drawing computer collage that is striking - especially the ability to defy gravity a bit by jutting off the bottom of the page for the pool area. This image really got me thinking about the topic, due to it's combination of old-new/digital-analog - but in essence more storyboard than drawing - essential design communication.


:: image via Brand Avenue

This touches on similar thematic ideas in 'Willas Wonderland' by LOOM studio, et al. (recently covered by architecture.MNP, previously by others, most comprehensively BLDGBLOG, per usual) which straddles storyboard/graphic novel with storytelling: From Loom Studio site:

"Thinking of our comic book as a model for reality, we know every community needs a vehicle that joins and carries many voices, many visions and many hands. These must be carried forth with human perspective in the context of actual human experience. Large projects are often developed in cities where rational economic and executive force usurps human comfort, practicality and beauty. Bird’s-eye planning rarely addresses human perspective from the street. Every city has need for humane stories, woven into the fabric of daily life and the places that nurture and inspire. A child’s perspective is often the most honest, pure and accurate."

:: Star Park (from Willa's Wonderland) - image detail via Loom Studio

A fusion of sorts, and more design than cartoon - but equally compelling are the graphics of the proposed Ronchamp expansion by Renzo Piano, with a simple graphic transition to section view which I think is just pure design poetry:

:: images via architecture.MNP

Curbed LA offers a North Hollywood school, with some aptly old-school plan and model shots of rooftop spaces for NoHo's Ark - a charter high school focusing on architecture, engineering and construction management:


:: images via Curbed LA.

I'm still amazed people still do physical models in our digital age - particularly realistic versions versus massing or monochromatic building forms - just because they look so bad. As we've discussed previously, there are few available graphic techniques to appropriately depict plant materials, and the model-train set kit is definitely not up to the task, in similar wasy that paper and digital methods are. They look like crap.

In some ways, it comes off as even less successful in certain paper techniques. I've ranted before about the bad SketchUp model - but there's also the case of the vague depictation to give the feeling of vegetation without actually giving a clue as to what it really will be. These are better, but a good case in point, the rendering of a Tesco store by Allies & Morrison (above), and a proposed building renovation in Chicago (below) showing courtyard and rooftop green and color with little actual meaningful detail:


:: image via BDonline

:: image via Chicago Journal

This is further reinforced and combated with a variety of graphic techniques - not making an attempt to provide detail but to sketch out a storyline. The following images (which I like in different ways) are from a recent Dezeen post about the 10x10 submission for Design Indaba with simple but divergent ways of depicting a variety of generic 'greens' on buildings - one with simple sketch - the other with collage.





:: images via Dezeen

A typical graphic veers towards the didactic - particularly the typical 'green' building diagram - this time featuring rooftop vegetation as one of the strategies (in this case, a silly rooftop garden and mound atop a generic structure - via Jetson Green:


:: partial image via The Washington Post

The digital age has provided for some interesting techniques, which deserve more attention that they get in this post - but I quite like the 'abstracted materialism' of these renderings for the Ritz Carlton hotel in Dubai (realism without trying to be too realistic):




:: images via WAN

This really just scratches the surface of representational techniques - and I aim to add to this in the future. All types have merit - whethere the designerly scribbles to the complex and realistic photo-montage. As many good and bad examples exist of both - but when it comes down to it there really is just a simple goal - provide adequate information to depict the concept that speaks to the particular audience. Sounds simple, right?

Stormwater to the Streets

A short while back I was surprised to see in one of my favorite blogs, Pruned, an article entitled: 'Hyperlocalizing Hydrology in the Post-Industrial Urban Landscape'. For most, is just a hyperbolic hydrologic way of saying, look, green streets! The profile focusses on the award-winning work of Portland's own Kevin Robert Perry, currently employed at Nevue-Ngan Associates, and projects completed while he was working at Bureau of Environmental Services 'Sustainable Stormwater Group'. The feature is well illustrated and full of complements.


:: image via Pruned

Which is, of course, well-deserved. These are seminal projects that have made green streets a household word here in Portland, and I know KRP has been hard at work spreading the gospel in other cities around the nation. From the tres-urban model at 12th & Montgomery, to the widely applicable NE Siskiyou Street project, (both ASLA national award winners - although I will admit to scratching my head about Siskiyou getting the nod - but what the heck... you go KRP!). Either way, since these projects have gone in, bar has been set high.


:: 12th & Montgomery Green Street - image via Pruned


:: NE Siskiyou Green Street - image via Pruned

It's exciting to see the work, and even more so to see the cumulative ripple effect, specifically in the Pacific Northwest. The City of Portland has adopted standard approved green street details based on these preliminary projects, which are accepted as viable stormwater management strategies. A fair number of projects going in the ground have green streets, and City Commissioner and Mayoral-candidate Sam Adams, thinks this is only the beginning.

In a sweeping proposal, Adams outlines 'Grey to Green' (borrowing from Girling and Kellett a tad), which outlines is summarized by the long history of pipe and pump for stormwater: "For over 100 years Portland has relied on engineered solutions to deal with our abundance of rain water run off. But in the past decade environmental advocates within and without city government have helped to shape a new vision that values this watery abundance as an asset that enhances our city rather than a problem that needs to be piped underground."

The end goal: MILES of green streets and ACRES of green (eco) roofs. The last I heard, the proposal was being confused with the 'Safe, Sound, and Green Streets'... a focus on transportation infrastructure and safety, but no stormwater. I'm sure there will be more to come on the Grey to Green proposal. Someone tell me what's up... they got me all excited then dropped it.

While I applaud the City for the brio and inventiveness, there is a strong desire to have more, but also to really focus on quality - and i hope we can inject some diversity into this discussion. A recent project we worked on at GreenWorks with BES identified some strategies to adapt the approved details for some contexts other than straight urban/residential settings.

:: Residential Green Street - Taggart Basin - image via GreenWorks

This reminded me of a similar vein from Brice at Something About Maryman, reinforcing that we are talking about quality, as well as really QUANTITY specifically in the Seattle area. Quoted below:

"I’ve been trying to find information about various cities and how much area of the city is within their right of way (ROW). Well, since no one can point me to a comprehensive list of the data, let’s start at home, shall we? Here in Seattle we have: 54,000 acres of land in the city, nearly 14,000 of which (about 26 percent) is in the ROW As of 2004, there were 1,534 lane miles of arterials, and 2,412 lane miles of non arterials... Fascinating stuff, right? But the here’s the reason I was looking for the information. Hypothetically, if we were to take 6’ out of each of those arterial right-of-ways for swales and/or rain gardens, we would reduce the pervious surface in Seattle by some 48,597,120 sq ft (assuming those ROW’s are paved across the entire cross section). Now that’s just the reduction in impervious surfaces; I’m not smart enough to figure out reductions in stormwater runoff, treatment of nutrient loads and reduction of hydrocarbon pollutants. Maybe someone else can…but still, I thought it an impressive number nearly 50 million square feet..."


:: Our national flower - image via Treehugger

This really reinforces some recent quotes by Lewis Mumford, a poignant one being: "...Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf." Make sense and does it really surprise us that it has some major ramifications for water quality that we must deal with. Some of those impacts locally: a subsequent recent post on SAM, news from from the Olympian regarding the Puget Sound, with an interesting statistic:

"The state Department of Ecology has estimated that stormwater runoff sends more contamination into Puget Sound than any other pollution pathway. It delivers 22,580 metric tons of oil and petroleum each year - more than 20 times the volume of direct oil spills entering the sound. "

While we make a big deal out of point source pollution and spills, and love articles about caffeinated and drugged fish... we tend to neglect this non-point source pollution. One green street is a good start. Miles is a good follow-up. Every street a green street - sounds like a good goal.