Grace Restaurant

Via Arch Daily, the Grace Restaurant by Sander Architects merges the vertical and edible. "Putting a new spin on restaurant design, the building itself will provide great food. Working with the idea “the building you can eat”, the project becomes an edible form that is sheathed in a vertical garden, covered with tasty plants. Passers-by will be free to pick fruits, vegetable and herbs from the building as they walk along. An open street-side counter will also cater to walk-up orders. With this edible idea, the building become both environmentally and people friendly."






:: images via Arch Daily

Bosque Esmerelda

The only thing better would be for this project not to happen, but lieu of this, I would love to see the transformation of a Super Walmart like this (via DesignBoom):


:: image via DesignBoom

A transformation of the big box - by ROW studio, from mexico city. "bosque esmeralda is a proposal for the redesign of the facade of a shopping center already under construction located on jimenez cantu avenue in zona esmeralda on the northwest of mexico city. row's design consisted of a metallic façade superposed to the concrete structure of the building that created grand irregular volumes that went from bigger to lower roughness along the length of the façade. metallic plaques gave shape to the volume and adapted to the different uses of the shopping mall."

Furnish Green

Building on the previous post, a few selections of the insertion of vegetation into furnishings and other elements of our urban environments. This includes furnishings such as the Romeo and Juliet bench spotted via Contemporist as well as some other more integrated concepts.


:: image via Contemporist

Next, via People and Place is a gabion bench with an icing of vegetation - spelling out, for what I'm sure is a good reason, the word Time? Cool detail for a somewhat random assemblage.


:: image via People and Place

Next, via DesignBoom, is a bench that again uses sod as an additional material - in this case as a centerpiece for some organically arranged seating nodes - arranged for variety and social interaction.




:: images via DesignBoom

As we see the insertion of plants to many building aspects, it's also interesting to see how it has been included in other ubiquitous urban accessories, for instance these bus stops clad in vegetation.


:: image via Urban Greenery

The most inventive version are these parking lines usurped by nature in 'Nature On A Tape' by designer Ji-Hye Koo: "There’s this whole movement about bringing back nature into the concrete jungles we’ve built in the past 100 years. Those painted line dividers we see everywhere serve a huge purpose but in an attempt to humanize and naturalize them... essentially a pre-potted strip of grass that’ll grow with no effort."


:: image via Urban Greenery

Cool idea (aside from the inverted imagery on the ADA space) but I'd posit that 'no effort' is hardly plausible. I'd give these a week before they are a mere, muddy, memory.

Moss House

An interesting veg.itectural iteration indoors are these semi-green applications of dried moss 'wallpaper' in the "...renovation of this gorgeous Moss House private residence in the Ebisu area of Tokyo, Japan. Taking inspiration from the plant life that scales the walls lining the nearby Shibuya River, the Nendo designers used dried moss to cover the interior walls with vine-like patterns. This custom wall treatment has a vivid color, a rich textural quality, and gives the starck white corridors a sense that the are alive." (quote via Inhabitat)




:: images via Inhabitat

The idea is applied to both surfaces and more decorative screens, as seen in a closer detail below. It'll be interesting to see how this holds up long term - but definitely a simple idea.


:: image via People and Place

Heudelet 26 Ecodistrict

A larger-scale project (via World Architecture Network) in Dijon, France offers integrated green solutions by an intedisciplinary team including EXP architectes and teammates Studiomustard Architecture, Sempervirens Landscape Designers in the creation of the Heudelet 26 Ecodistrict: "Located in proximity to the city center, the new urban design will be the first of Dijon’s Ecodistricts and serve as a model for later developments. The district will enhance “the neighborhood’s identity and density by favouring mixed income and mixed generational housing, thus testifying to a new way of conceiving urban development.”


:: image via WAN

The grouping of 300 residences and a mix of other buildings will use the greenery to aid in active and passive energy use. There is also a focus on multi-modal transportation and walkability, utilizing roofs and other spaces for additional open spaces: "The district is geared toward pedestrians and cyclists; yet, the district will also include a parking lot that will rest slightly below grade and its roof will “provide a green corridor, with commons, playgrounds, urban forums, vegetable gardens.”






:: images via WAN

Village Green

While head in the clouds is a back-handed compliment, this art installation, via A New F*cking Wilderness by Seattle artist Vaughn Bell offers an experience with a little more vegitectural flair. Village Green includes: "... these biosphere boxes suspended from the ceiling. The artist had a box up at Bumbershoot, in Seattle, that I saw in-person. It feels like a different world when you stick your head in, especially in the two-person."


:: image via A New F*cking Wilderness


:: Humid - image via Inhabitat

This reminds me of the experience of the Vivarium at the Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park - which I've visited multiple times, but have yet to get inside until a few weeks ago. I'll post on it soon.

Athanaeum Hotel

I missed on the big push of media behind this one due to my trip up to Tacoma to see the man Patrick Blanc himself along with his new wall, but the stunning 8-story living wall at Athanaeum Hotel in London is worth a peek and a comment or two.


:: image via Inspiration Wall

It's really interesting to see this after getting a chance to kick the tires of a real-life Blanc project. Simple, but still amazing to see how scalable and regionally adaptable the idea is - as well as how seamlessly integrated into the building these designs can become.


:: image via Inspiration Wall

While using a mix of native and exotics is the typical plan, inevitably, there has been some minor pushback from folks asking about Blanc's use of non-natives on these walls (see The Dirt for a couple of these), which is sort of a reactionary, but somewhat necessary conversation to have. As he mentioned in his lecture - he uses a right plant-right place ideaology, and is much more interested in bringing nature into the city than adhering to a native purism for living wall designs. Are these plantings in walls less mobile in potentially adapting and invading, or are they just the job to get it done (similar to green roofs) where natives come up lacking in functionality and aesthetics in urban areas? A question to consider.

Maybe a question for Mr. Blanc himself, as he seems to have an extensive knowledge of botany lacking in the typical LA - but hasn't specifically talked about this subject. I'm hoping to get an interview soon, so will add this to the list of questions.


:: images via Inspiration Wall

Bringing Nature Back

While JT may have single-handedly brought 'SexyBack', our attempts to bring nature back our cities tends to unlatch from common sense. At times I've touched on the same critical vein on this 'unreality' of many visuals showing the greening of buildings, much as my colleague Lisa Town at Inspiration Wall mentions in a recent rant, but I think the dialogue about the visions and their implementation is still thought provoking and worth exploring.

And I agree that these Far-Sidesque images of Veg.itecture from Variations on Normal in their post 'Bringing nature back to the concrete jungle', are quite rad.


:: image via Inspiration Wall

PNC Green Wall

Lots of news as this vision has become reality and the results are pretty much expected. I'm not a big fan of overt vegetated advertising, but the initial installation of this project looks pretty vibrant and healthy. It's also interesting to see that all of those 1980s macro-pixel based drawings I did on computer may come in handy when designing custom pre-grown wall systems (in this case using a GLT system) - as you can see from the squares that make up the design (by NY based Mingo Design).


:: image via Inhabitat

Check out some news and coverage on Inhabitat, (see also Jetson Green),where the lines still roll on about the 'energy savings' with this wall. Ah well - as no one has yet to explain to me what the overall data behind this is for a rather large building and a comparatively small wall - I'll spare a follow-up tirade. It is, at least for now, the biggest living wall in North America, does look good, does include some energy savings and microclimate modification - and is a pretty cool billboard for PNC - for whatever that's worth.


:: image via Inhabitat