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

Evergreen La Florida

Via Arch Daily: "ROW Studio designed a new luxury apartment complex in a heavily wooded area in southern Mexico City. The buildings are placed around the existing trees and all facades are covered with plants to conceal the structures. This strategy gives the interiors “the sensation of living in the treetops”. Parking and service areas are located below the buildings to maximize the porosity of the soil and to avoid any visual obstruction on the ground level. There is a visual continuous garden, from the entry of the complex to the back of the site, as greenery flows from the ground level, up the facades of the buildings and into the surroundings. The ground level apartments are protected with a “land fold” of bushes for privacy which also screen their private patio. Wooden rooftop decks provide great areas for gatherings, meals, parties or to just simply enjoy garden views."






:: images via Arch Daily

City Hills/Eco-quartier

A project via World Architecture News by OVA Studio for a competition in Geneva, Switzerland, falls into the typology of creating surface area by folding building program underneath new landscape surfaces: "City Hills, which generates residential hill-like mounds with green roofs and sides, attempting to integrate the design within its natural surroundings... Our hills containing the various activities (residential, school, warehouses, artist workshops) try to soften the idea of a building, blending them in the landscape that you access easily from the streets. Walls become roofs, roofs become gardens...” said Ouahes. “This is the purpose of our work: Create intelligent, emotional and innovative solutions... For people.”






:: images via WAN

Green Cube

A proposal for the upcoming Ecobuild offers a vegitectural flair to (via Building) "Capita Symonds has unveiled plans for a “living building” at Ecobuild, designed jointly by the group's landplanning division Capita Lovejoy and Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winner Patrick Collins. The 10m x 10m x 8m “green cube” structure has been designed to highlight the importance of green infrastructure in the built environment."


:: image via Building

"It is the first time a “living structure” of this scale has been attempted at the show and the first time that the various “living wall” technologies have been combined in a single project. The project will feature more than 50 species of plants, including indigenous and ornamental evergreen perennials, grasses and ferns."

GRiT - Green Roof Info Think-tank

A new resource for folks in Portland and beyond is the Green Roof Info Think-tank (GRiT) which is a forum for sharing and discussing green roof issues, information, and opportunities in Portland and the Pacific Northwest. The group meets monthly to provide face to face interaction, and also has recently launched an online presence to continue the conversation beyond these once-monthly opportunities.



Started up by an interdisciplinary group of professionals from design, construction, supply and government, the aim is to provide a non-proprietary platform to get together and discuss a range of topics. Participation has been great, with an average of 20 or so folks coming to monthly meetings from a range of companies and groups including public agencies, non-profits, universities, general contractors, roofers, landscape contractors, designers, architects, landscape architects, and a few residential homeowners.

The new group-site is modeled after the successful east-coast version for Capitol Greenroofs, which has over 1250 members and a number of lively and interesting discussions. If you are interesting in participating, or just listening in, come to the next meeting on March 31st (info will be published on the site) or join the site, and the conversations, today!

Herstal City Hall

Via Arch Daily: "Frédéric Haesevoets, a Belgian architect, recently won a competition for his design of a new city hall for Herstal. The international competition asked participants to design a new city hall to accommodate office spaces for central administration, archives and mixed use areas. .... The geometric form offers a break from the surrounding structures, emphasizing the importance of this communal structure. The faceted facade fuses the natural and the synthetic as sections of greenery are scattered among sections of glass. Inside, bright warm colors greet workers, a drastic change from the typical office color palette."




:: images via Arch Daily

Lakefront Station

Via Arch Daily, a vibrant proposal for a sinuosly sprawling new transportation linkage in Cleveland by Cerver Design Studio that shows off "... the design of a new transportation hub in Cleveland that will cohesively integrate pedestrians, cyclists, and automobiles. ...the state-of-the-art trains and station facilities, a new park space will float above the rail station to connect Cleveland Convention Center to the Lake Front Station. ”The new hub will re-activate the flow of the entire Lake Front area and create a cohesive link to this dynamic site,” explained the architect."






:: images via Arch Daily

Floating Green 2

A new proposal via Dezeen: "Dutch architect Anne Holtrop has collaborated with green technology firm Studio Noach and botanist Patrick Blanc to propose an artificial floating island containing gardens and a spa... The floating gardens / Spa Wellness Amsterdam project would contain baths and treatment rooms on the inside while the outside would be covered with hydroponic greenery."




:: images via Dezeen

As mentioned in the text, the structural armature can be relatively light, as Blancs form of greening using hydroponic techniques (soil-less) that require minimal structural capacity. From Dezeen: "Patrick Blanc who designs his Living Walls all over the world explains: “Do plants really need soil? No, … Earth is no more than a tool. Just water containing minerals and nutrients, along with common daylight and carbon dioxide are necessary for plants to make photosynthesis possible. ”"


:: images via Dezeen

Read and see more at the great full post over at Dezeen.

Green the Void

An interesting exhibition had a number of proposals that ventured into the Veg.itectural. Via Archidose, the: "...Contemplating the Void exhibition opening at the Guggenheim Museum. Curators Nancy Spector and David van der Leer asked nearly 200 artists and architects (a roughly 50/50 split between them) to create something that would fill the void in Frank Lloyd Wright's famous rotunda."


:: The Rotunda - image via IgoUgo

As mentioned: "Not surprisingly, a number of contributors envisioned a rotunda filled with trees and/or other vegetation, in some cases a commentary on a dire future and in others an alternative potential for the large skylit space." Check out some of these proposals (all images via Archidose)


[Above L: SeARCH R: Saunders Architecture ]


[Above L: N55 R: Itami Jun Architects]

Another that I thought worth mentioning were the whimsical proposals that enveloped more of the museum interior with a range of solultions. "In the case of the[se] two ...the museum becomes a factory for pull-candy and a water park."


[L: Ball-Nogues Studio R: Work Architecture Company]

Oregon Field Guide - Ecoroofs

The recent episode of OPB's Oregon Field Guide features a segment on ecoroofs with a good overview of some of the local drivers and projects, along with the ubiquitous Tom Liptan and his pioneering garage roof. Check out the segment here.


:: screen capture of video via OFG

Also check out a companion blog post from Vince Patton, exploring the math of stormwater management '37 inches = 86 billion gallons' : "Portland gets about 37 inches of rain each year. That adds up to 86 billion gallons of water falling on our heads, grass, driveways, parking lots, roofs and trees. The city’s big headache is that we’ve paved over so much of metropolitan Portland that most of that water is running down into the storm sewers."

Negative/Positive

An interesting earth-sheltered concept, the Bolton eco-house in the UK, by Make Architects, provides a metaphorical flower-shape: The "...proposed four bedroom, single storey property will be deliberately embedded into a Pennine hillside so as to minimise the impact on the surrounding views. A roof of meadow grasses and flora will flow seamlessly over the property and into the surrounding landscape."




:: images via WAN

Growth Rendering Device

Love this installation for the Growth Rendering Device by David Bowen: "...a kinetic sculpture that is draws images of a small plant based on its growth patterns. ...the sculpture provides light and food to a small plant being grown hydroponicly inside a vase. as the plant grows, the system reacts by producing rasterized inkjet drawings of it every twenty four hours. each time a drawing is complete the roll of paper moves forward to make room for the next drawing.'" (via Designboom - click for more info and pics)




:: images via Designboom

SF Vertical Gardens Exhibition

Via The Dirt, an announcement of an upcoming exhibition called Vertical Gardens and organized by the AIA San Francisco and the Center for Architecture + Design Gallery opening February 18 – April 30, 2010.


:: image via AIA SF

“The past decade has seen a greater emergence of green roofs and vertical gardens created by artists, designers, architects and urban gardeners to combat the lack of flora in the city. Buildings around the world—from the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco—have embraced green walls or roofs for all their economical, environmental, and aesthetic values. Vertical farms and gardens are also being envisioned as new ways to feed local and organic foods to city dwellers. Largely based on the principles of hydro-ponics, vertical gardens are mostly self-sustaining because they capture large amounts of natural sunlight and water, and use wind as an energy source. In a country where cities are suffocated by high rises, cement and industrial materials, where can green space exist? As this exhibition demonstrates, one possible answer is ‘up.’”

The program includes a veritable who's who (as well as a who's that or two?) in terms of Vertical Greening, featuring many folks who's work has graced the pages of this blog, including Patrick Blanc, Flora Grubb, Emilio Ambasz, Dickson Despommier, James Wines, and many more. Many of these projects may have come from last year's Exit Art exhibit on vertical gardens - and it includes a pair of installations to go along with the documentation of this wide range of projects including urban farming and green roofs to round out the vegitectural du jour.

Green Train Station

An analog to the recent post about the Green Bridge in Budapest is this New Zealand train station which was temporarily vegetated, via Inhabitat: "...imagine the surprise if your local platform suddenly sprouted a vast green meadow! Not too long ago Auckland New Zealand’s Britomart Station received a grassy green makeover that transformed 1,250 square meters of its cold hard concrete into a plush green field."






:: images via Inhabitat

Urbanarbolismo's Jardín Vertical

The guys at Urbanarbolismo show off a new installation of a Blanc-style living wall in Getafe, Spain: "The garden covers the ventilation tower on the cover of the supermarket that is located in the inner courtyard of the block, the location of the garden is due to a request from the neighbors..."




:: images via Urbanarbolismo

Cool Idea, Shitty Mirror

Via Inhabitat, a way of bring some lushness to the bathroom: “H2O Architects designed an incredible looking wall planter dubbed the “Grass Mirror.” The planter is 43 inches long and 4 inches deep and adds a stunning effect to any room. The “Grass Mirror” is actually made up of highly reflective polished stainless steel which creates a very unique look for your wall.”


:: image via Inhabitat

High Line in Winter

:: image via People and Place