Permanent? Hiatus

Due to a number of factors, Veg.itecture will be on hiatus (perhaps temporarily, perhaps not?) until further notice - as I concentrate on many other projects and the launch of my new firm.

The original point was to fill a void in the coverage of vegetated architecture proposals and projects - which have literally exploded in recent times. The scope is frankly overwhelming in sheer number, scale, quality, conflict, hyperbole, idiocy, brilliance and to pardon the pun - overall growth.

What is needed is a more robust dialogue and commentary on these projects - something that would require a very large amount of time to provide a contribution to the oeuvre - time of which I do not possess.

I will most likely include a post of two in this bent occasionally on Landscape+Urbanism, but rather than make Veg.itecture yet another parade of the latest/greatest items of note without any substantive content, displayed in a cursory fashion (which can be found on countless other blogs) - I thought it prudent to focus attention elsewhere.

Veg.itecture has arrived and will live on. This blog, well... who knows.

Hillside Terraced Green Roofs

Via Inhabitat: "Austrian architects Tobias Weiss and Gernot Reisenhofer have designed a beautiful series of terraced hillside homes that save energy by blending into their environment. Nestled against the surrounding hills, each green-roofed apartment takes advantage of passive solar design, rainwater recycling, and photovoltaic sunshades."


:: images via Inhabitat

More images and text at Inhabitat: "The community’s terraced layout ensures that each apartment has a beautiful view, complete with a stretch of green space out front that doubles as an insulating green roof for the unit below. The roofs are populated with local plants and feature rainwater recycling systems that help water the plants and provide greywater for use in the apartments. A series of pedestrian walkways winds between these rooftop parks, encouraging the use of sustainable transportation and creating a tightly knit community."




:: images via Inhabitat

Lincoln Center Atrium Green Wall

The previous post referenced the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts living wall in the David Rubenstein Atrium (by Tod Williams Billie Tsien) as an inspiration for exterior applications, so I thought it apt to post a few pics of this interior vertical installation. "The Atrium also features two vertical gardens; a floor-to-ceiling fountain; a media wall with performance information, which also serves as a canvas for video presentations; an art installation by Dutch textile artisan Claudy Jongstra; and 16 “occuli” lighting fixtures that bring natural light and state-of-the-art illumination into the Atrium's interior."


:: image via Lincoln Center


:: imagevia Salvini Architect


:: image via NY Eater


:: image via Inside Urban Green

The Sustainable Neighborhood

Architect Andrea Salvini offers a project in Caserta, Italy called The Sustainable Neighborhood, which features some interesting veg.itectural amenities: "In collaboration with Italian architect Barbara Berni, this mixed-use residential project was conceived as a large-scale, green building development on nearly 12 acres in the province of Caserta in southern Italy.




:: images via Salvini Architect

"The design and site plan, reflecting a direct response to the needs of this tightly knit community in which environmental regulations are becoming increasingly strict, is intended to be sustainable and improve its inhabitants’ comfort and standard of living."


:: image via Salvini Architect

Some info on the inspirations for the exterior green walls: "The vertical gardens follow the example of other architectural applications of this living, green façade, such as French botanist Patrick Blanc’s designs, Jean Nouvel’s Musée du Quai Branly in Paris and the recent indoor application in the Harmony Atrium at Lincoln Center in New York, where its purpose is cited as a “theatrical garden,” featuring 20-foot-high walls of plants and cascades of falling water. Another goal for this project is to integrate and extend the existing greenspace, making sure to give back twofold in green where the built space has been claimed. Contemporary architecture is evolving more and more to minimize its footprint on existing landscapes, where possible. In this sense, even the aforementioned vertical gardens would act as an extension, albeit abstract, to the existing landscape."




:: images via Salvini Architect

Thanks to David Savage of NYC for the heads up on this project!

Veg.itectural Crossings

The announcement of a competition for wildlife crossings via The Metropolitan Field Guide coordinated by the ARC sounds pretty fascinating as a sub-genre melding rooftop greening, infrastructure and habitat.

"ARC will engage the best and most innovative international, interdisciplinary design teams—comprised of landscape architects, architects, engineers, ecologists, and other experts—to create the next generation of wildlife crossing structures for North America’s roadways. This competition seeks specifically from its entries, innovation in feasible, buildable context-sensitive and compelling design solutions for safe, efficient, cost-effective, and ecologically responsive wildlife crossings. In doing so, it hopes to raise international awareness of a need to better reconcile the construction and maintenance of road networks with wildlife movement."

:: I-90 Bridge Crossing - image via The Metropolitan Field Guide

This made me think of a number of projects in the files I had saved to discuss the concept of 'Crossings' as a veg.itectural typology. There are plenty of interesting examples that fold greenery atop transportation corridors - somewhat different from the related typology that tucked building program under rooftop space. The idea of over/under vegetated separation isn't new, but has some interesting precedents:


:: image via makdreams

Via urbanism, a proposal in which: "Greenwich Street would be the “spine” of a more accessible neighborhood the Downtown Alliance calls Greenwich South. A vision of the future for an area would include green rooftops meant to be wildlife habitats."



This one reminded me of the never-realized but interesting (in terms of urbanism, if not design) version in Portland for capping the I-405 freeway:


:: image via mindspring

And the newest additions to the local versions of this including the Vancouver Land Bridge by Jones and Jones...


:: image via Jones & Jones

And the recent competition, won by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol + Allied Works for spanning Interstate 5 in Vancouver, Washington (more on this one later). While not the winning entry, the below image from Olin, Mayer/Reed, and Holst offer a better image of the spanning indicative of the project goals connecting west to east.


:: images via OregonLive

More recent examples come from Chicago and Los Angeles. The first by Perkins + Will offer a strategy for bridging over existing roadways in Chicago's downtown core. Via WAN: "This project serves as an example of how bridging over an existing highway can provide areas for new open space in downtown Chicago and serve as an urban catalyst for future growth. A series of inhabitable park bridges link either side of the expressway at mid-block to avoid disruption of existing entry ramps. Functions located within the bridges can provide new public or private facilities and link up with developable parcels on either side of the expressway."




:: images via WAN

Another recent project (via Designboom) that could provide some inspiration for these solutions are focused more on spanning highways for people and park-space in Los Angeles by Paris firm odile decq and benoit cornette architects.




:: images via Designboom

There are many examples of these shown on Vegitecture previously, which amounts to a full-fledged typology of form... sounds like another chapter is in order. The most visible versions of this include the new... the High Line (seen in a before pic here)...


:: image via Urban Greenery

...and the old... Halprin's Freeway Park in Seattle.


:: image via Great Buildings

Plus another subset of recent proposals such as the 'greenwrapped' Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, which aims to reclaim a section of elevated roadway for use as open space green corridors.


:: image via Treehugger

And for a more expansive idea - check out BLDGBLOG's post on 'Bypass Urbanism'.

Lewis Katz Building Green Roof

Dubbed 'Snake in the Glass' by World Architecture Network, a great aerial view of this sinuous green roof for the Lewis Katz Building at Penn State by Polshek Partnership Architects.


:: image via WAN

Parkour - Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects

Via designboom: "swedish firm kjellgren kaminsky architecture's 'parkour' is a proposal of a redesign of an old mental hospital in gothenburg. here apartments will be connected by large common areas cutting through the old building and creating social and physical links. the structure and depth of the existing building challenged the architect's to consider the unexpected. could people's needs and requirements for housing quality be maintained and exceeded within the challenging framework? ... then the second part is built up of super-flexible functional zones that grow, shrink, disappear and come back due to daily needs and desires."




:: images via designboom

"By sharing functions and products the otherwise individual resources are saved. the house is fitted with solar cells, solar panels and small wind turbines to harvest renewable energy sources. local food production on the roof reduces needs for transportation and eutrophication. rainwater is collected to be reused for the irrigation of the greenhouses and for flushing toilets."


:: image via designboom