Trend-Spotting: Living Walls

It's official - green walls are the next BIG thing. Ok, we already knew that - but one reason I say this now? While coverage in the glossy design magazines is one thing, showing up on CNN.com is a good sign of a trend both spotted and confirmed. What's next? People magazine profiling Patrick Blanc? Veg.itectural Digest? (I like the sound of that one). One interesting part of this article was the following diagram that outlined some of the combined benefits of including a green roof and walls on a 10 story building.


:: image via CNN.com

This reinforces the concept in an earlier post that much of the exposed surface area, particularly in urban areas is found in the building skin - and thus a good portion of the energy benefits can be realized with facade greening, particularly on buildings with smaller roofs and taller that 2-3 stories. As the adage of losing most of your heat through your head is similar to building envelope, it makes sense: Full coverage = full benefit.


:: image via Dwell

A couple of projects unveiled this week only add fuel to this trendy fire, in some inventive ways. The first is dubbed Brooklyn's first living wall at the Oulu Bar & EcoLounge which was featured yesterday on Jetson Green. According to Preston at JG, the project (Correction, 03.28.08 - I previously listed the amount of living wall as 2500 sf, which is actually the building area, not sure of total living wall coverage) has the entire front facade covered in vegetation, using what at first glance looks like the ELT Living Wall Panels and planted with a mix of sedums, iceplant and other succulents.

:: images via Jetson Green

The most striking view is the before and after - which should be required viewing for any business with a need for some alternative façadism. You can find more information and photos from designer Evangeline Dennie's website as well.

:: images via Jetson Green

The next is a more abstractly artful example of wispy tendrils of vegetation for the Miami Art Museum by Herzog and de Meuron, and is striking in illustrative form and concept. Spotted on Inhabitat, the project is: "...described as the modern interpretation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon - an imaginative structure that bridges urban spaces, climates and cultures... As visitors move from the park into the open plaza, they will be greeted by a series of trees and columns, meant to resemble a forest canopy."

:: image via Inhabitat

It's exciting to see projects transforming from graphics to reality, the emergence of a number of companies, and the coverage of the vegetated and living wall in mainstream media. It will be interesting to see how this evolves as well in trendiness - as aesthetic tastes always linger for a bit and move on to something else. The value in this is using the vegetation artfully - but also expanding the usage beyond vegetation becoming another material applied to facades - which will do wonders for the longevity of this trend.

Transportation and Space

It sounds obvious when you say it (and it has been said many times before) but it is always striking to see how influential modes of transportation are on the shaping of our cities. The magnitude and impacts are immense but also provide a range of new opportunities to explore. The typical figure ground study shows the differences and similarities of building and 'open space' - but misses the complexities of what these places are like experientially and ecologically. While some recent car-free cities have been proposed in other countries - is this a feasible option. It may be a fact of life that cars (in some way) will continue to have a sizable impact on planning for the foreseeable future.


:: image via Treehugger

To illustrate this point further, via Core77, a poster from the German city of Munster's planning office, showing the relative space taken up to transport the same number of people by auto, bus, and bike. Looks like bus and bike win out there hands down, what a surprise. (click to enlarge for more detail)


:: image via Core77

To put this in some numerical terms (somewhat non-spatial) a few choice stats from Yes! Magazine to reinforce the point some more:

:: Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on defense: 8,555
:: Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on health care: 10,779
:: Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on education: 17,687
:: Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on mass transit: 19,795 [source]

Or to put it more succinctly, the : "...amount of money that a community gains for every mile biked instead of driven: 50 cents [source]" This is reinforced with a call for real cost impacts of roads, challenging some of our existing and dated aesthetic notions, as well as striving for more 'Complete Streets'. This also involves re-envisioning the use of space in cities such as inventive new uses of alleys as well as perhaps redefining what it means to park downtown. Nonetheless, the web we weave is still there.


:: image via Treehugger

But we're talking about space, so what does this mean in terms of design? A compelling guest post on Where by Ella Peinovich describes some of the experience with a Winy Mass studio class aimed at 'Designing SkyCar City' ... which essentially had a simple aim: "…create a city built for the use of a skycar, a city with 'streets' at any level, or perhaps empty of streets as we know them…"


:: Futuristic Skycar - image via Skyaid

The essay mentions a companion book published of the solutions. One aspect that Ms. Peinovich addresses is the utopian tendency to want to make car-free cities - mostly as a cop-out to real problem solving of real problems. Here quote, again from Where: "...It is our responsibility as designers to address real issues rather than represent feel-good utopias. A city model that is designed in reaction to current outstanding issues of common society (e.g. waste disposal, greening, traffic relief etc…) will likely get a lot of attention and praise. On the contrary, our city model chose to explore and build up a topic which currently carries a negative stigma. We suggested that, as a society, we accept that every person wants the freedom of having their own car. We chose to assume this desire of every individual and suggest that public transportation has no future. We feel our model holds its clout because it is based on realistic projections of where society IS headed, rather than where it SHOULD be."

Well the promise of Skycars has not panned out so far, so perhaps looking at some of the materials in which to make space for our cars (and bikes, and people). Much press has been devoted to a variety of permeable options, which have a range of pros and cons. How about some other options? Jetson Green mentioned a recent project with: "...a Dutch office building that is both heated and cooled using heat (or cold) from the asphalt of the road outside the building, as opposed to the more conventional use of solar thermal panels on the building's roof."


:: image via Jetson Green

While not a flawless solution, the multi-functional aspects of this paving are laudable. Removal and/or burial is a great option as well. The Big Dig is finally completed and Boston is realizing the potential of this new found ribbon of open space and building areas within the fabric of the city. Adaptive reuse at it's finest. A profile in the NY Times showed some of this transformation.




:: images via NY Times

The benefits are huge, but burial is a problematic and expensive endeavor. Next option, get rid of the street. Portland (I brag) was on this trend previously, with the removal of Harbor Drive Highway that sliced through downtown alongside the riverfront, severing any connection to the river. In the earlier 1970s, the highway was removed and has become one of the most popular park spaces in the City.


:: Harbor Drive (1964) - image via Removing Freeways - Restoring Cities

:: Tom McCall Waterfront Park - image via Portland Ground

On a different local note, an installation by local Bill Badrick that is on display right now at the Northwest Portland location of the Lucky Lab Brewpub is a vision of the Columbia River Crossing - sheathed in rooftop green. Bill writes: "...The concept is to put a park roof on the proposed freeway bridge over the Columbia River [below]. The Park Roof protects drivers/walkers/bikers from the fierce winter storms , controls runoff , and mostly eliminates expensive re-painting. Imagine a picnic at 200' above the river with a panorama from Mt St Helens to Mt Hood!"

:: images via Bill Badrick

What the drawings lack in refinement, they definitely make up for in vision. Definitely more poetic that the latest versions of the CRC, to say the least... or an opportunity to not just build a road, but build some community.

Urban Ag: The Buzz

If it's not landscaping on buildings or ecologically planning communities around the globe, it must be the buzz-concept of Urban Agriculture - and it's had a lot of press lately. A lot of press. And deservedly so - as the new face(s) of agriculture seem to be collecting into teeming masses with some traction towards big changes. Rather than focus on the new press, let's starting with an art/ag piece from a few years ago, 'Not a Cornfield' by Los Angeles based artist Lauren Bon.




:: image via Not a Cornfield

"Not A Cornfield is a living sculpture in the form of a field of corn. The corn itself, a powerful icon for millennia over large parts of Central America and beyond, can serve as a potent metaphor for those of us living in this unique megalopolis. This work follows a rich legacy of radical art during the 20th century on a grand scale. I intend this to be an event that aims at giving focus for reflection and action in a city unclear about where it's energetic and historical center is. With this project I have undertaken to clean 32 acres of brownfield and bring in more than 1,500 truck loads of earth from elsewhere in order to prepare this rocky and mixed terrain for the planting of a million seeds. This art piece redeems a lost fertile ground, transforming what was left from the industrial era into a renewed space for the public. ... By bringing attention to this site throughout the Not A Cornfield process we will also bring forth many questions about the nature of urban public space, about historical parks in a city so young and yet so diverse. About the questions of whose history would a historical park in the city center actually describe, and about the politics of land use and it's incumbent inequities. Indeed, "Not A Cornfield" is about these very questions, polemics, arguments and discoveries. It is about redemption and hope. It is about the fallibility of words to create productive change. Artists need to create on the same scale that society has the capacity to destroy.”

These ephemeral installations are great opportunities to both occupy blighted lands as well as the ability to reconnect residents to their agricultural pasts. A Portland project endeavoring to identify urban agriculture opportunities is the Diggable City, which identified available lands within the city for production. As I have mentioned previously, the opportunities to occupy available lands in urban areas for agriculture (on land, rooftop, and perhaps even facade) is a great multi-functional chance to provide self-sufficiency and interpretation.

As far as buzz goes, the terminology zipping around the, for lack of a better pun, crop circles - includes a number of new members of the agri-lexicon. One of my favorites is locavore, and a variant, the "100-mile diet" were recently profiled on Treehugger in a great post: "Green Basics: Local Food"


:: image via Treehugger

The post is worth a close read, and also has links to a number of local food resources. While we often use these terms, it's good to re-evaluate the ecological values embodied in the concept. The article adds: "The concept is also defined in terms of ecology, where food production is considered from the perspective of a basic ecological unit defined by its climate, soil, watershed, species and local agrisystems; everything together is defined as as "ecoregion" or "foodshed."

Ah, a couple of other terms, one that is getting much use is "foodshed". A new term, right? Well, not exactly. Adapted from the ecological concept of watershed, the term was coined in 1929 to: "...describe the flow of food from the area where it is grown into the place where it is consumed." (via Wisconsin Foodshed Research Project). The exact radius varies for the distance of acceptable food miles traveled, but just for kicks, strike a 100 mile circle around your house, and consume from just this area. Now do this in Houston - or Phoenix - or Fargo. It is possible, but not necessarily easy.


:: image via Treehugger

Another term that was pointed out to me in a comment to previous post involving the significant carbon sequestration potential in soils. The latest term picked up recently by Treehugger, involves biochar (aka agrichar, terra preta) not just for Simply put it is: "...what you get when biomass is heated in the absence of oxygen through a process called pyrolysis. When incorporated into soil, biochar provides the structural habitat needed for a rich community of micro-organisms to take hold. Incorporating biochar into soil can also act as a way to sequester carbon."

What's the big deal? Again, multi-functional solutions. (via Treehugger): "Biochar is a classic win-win scenario, a solution that can provide us with a valuable tool for fighting climate change, world hunger, poverty, and energy shortages all at the same time." A number of new initiatives are capitalizing on the phenomenon, including the International Biochar Initiative and the Biochar Fund, both with some great additional resources.

:: image via Biochar Fund

Finally, let's marry a couple of buzz-concepts - urban agriculture and vertical greening. A different scale than some of the featured rooftop ag gardens, this project preceded a multi-part post on My Urban Garden Deco Guide and the companion site 'My Urban Farm' as blogger Anne Robert bemoans the lack of aesthetics in the new wave of planters focussed around Grow Your Own veggies as new urban trend. One exception is a previous post on 'Salad Bar' which provides a new vision for facade-grown veggies in a more refined container.

:: image via My Urban Garden Deco Guide

:: image via Turf Design

Now that is tasty!