Tonight: Habitats/Veg.itecture

integrating habitats defining veg.itecture

asla oregon - mt. hood section lecture

1515 SE Water Street - Suite 100

April 14, 2008 - 5:30pm

Two current trends that offer myriad opportunities for landscape architecture include trends towards truly integrated habitats and definitions of veg.itecture, the insertion of vegetation into architectural form. Jason King, ASLA LEED and Brett Milligan ASLA will provide an overview of both topics and provide an open forum for discussion of these important trends.

Part I will give a detailed account of their award-winning entry for the Metro Integrating Habitats Competition entitled Urban Ecotones: Transitional Spaces for Commerce and Culture. The proposal provides a vision for how innovative big box development design can regenerate, rather than destroy lowland hardwood forest habitat corridors within the expanding city of Portland. Using the model Nature in Neighborhoods ordinance as a guide, and Landscape Urbanism theory as a framework, the proposal is informed by time based, economic and ecological systems to provide an adaptive development model for the shift from fossil fuel dependency to a more localized economy. Particular attention is given to the thresholds at which commercial development meets natural systems. Rather than seeing these interactions as points of confrontation, they are approached as environments of unique richness—a synergy of both habitats akin to an ecotone: the transitional area between two ecosystems containing more diversity and biotic activity than singular habitats.

Part II will provide an engaging visual investigation of the recent trend of Veg.itecture and its impact on the allied professions of architecture and landscape architecture – including the representative, descriptive, and technical. This concept builds on and transcends our current implementation of simple rooftop gardens, ecoroofs, and living walls to encompass a holistic and integrated approach to design intervention that blurs the lines between landscape and architecture. Topics include a definition of the concept, including the eight common typologies of veg.itecture in action, and how this phenonomenon impacts and expands the practice of landscape architecture. In addition to providing this veg.itectural primer, the presentation will include a survey of recent projects from around the world as featured on Jason King’s blog Landscape+Urbanism including the work of Ken Yeang, Jean Nouvel, Patrick Blanc, Hundertwasser, Urbanarbolismo, James Corner, Mass Studies, and many more.

There will be time at the end for a thorough discussion of both topics, offering the chance to discuss, dispute, expand, and question these exciting topics that have current and future resonance for our profession.

Vancouver CC Green Roof Videos

As promised some more coverage of the new Vancouver Convention Centre and it's massive green roof - this time in a pair of videos. First, a video featuring extensive interviews with the landscape architect, Bruce Hemstock from PWL Partnership, as well as Reece Rehm, planting supervisor for Holland Landscapers. Enjoy.



Thanks James from Radar DDB for the heads up. Another video focuses on the cost overruns on the project - which got particularly boring after a minute or so... anyway, check it out for a bit of info. Via YouTube: "The living roof is going to be something that is recognized around the world, said Campbell, taking part in a ceremonial planting to mark the completion of the 2.5-hectare plant-covered roof, the largest in North America.More than 350,000 indigenous plants and grasses have been planted in a 15-cm deep substrate of sand, organic mulch and lava rock and will be watered by 43 km of irrigation piping.There are more living plants on the roof of the Vancouver Convention Centre than flowers in all of Vancouvers 200 parks."



And a cool time-lapse video of the entire construction process - which is enlivened by the inclusion of the green roof soils and plantings...

VIVA + VIA Sneak Peek

The inevitable issue with taking a break, even for a couple of weeks, from blogging, is that the flows of project ideas and concepts wait for no one and begin to pile up in a somewhat annoying fashion... so I have a massive backlog of projects to show off... and as it's late - a quick peek at some new ones before I get far into the projects. And as there seems to be a predominance of quick visual blogs popping up - I'm hoping to get some good dialogue and information going about both the visual and the realized.

For the (Veg.itecture in Visual Assessment) VIVA - GRAFT Architects and the “ao project” is a fantastic example of how wild the concept of Veg.itecture has come (via The Design Blog - via Designboom for much more). Or on another hand, it's an example of what happens to your glassy modern box if it gets lost in the back of the fridge for a month or so.






:: images via The Design Blog

And for the (Veg.itecture in Action) VIA we have the long-awaited Vancouver Convention Center (or Centre, depending on your location) - featuring the largest green roof in Canada... more on this one soon for sure.


:: image via Jetson Green