I'm lost in Paris
Parisian architects R&Sie have been pioneers of living green façades since the early 1990s, and with their 'Lost in Paris' project the idea was taken to new heights.
What makes the house's exterior green skin so unique is that it is a 'living' wall based on a hydroponics system. The ferns are wrapped around the 130 sq m structure and fed mechanically with a liquid mix of bacteria and need no soil base to grow. They get their nutrition drop by drop through 300 glass beakers full of especially prepared bacterial chemical culture mix while rainwater is collected to water the plants.
Under its green wrapping, the house itself is made of concrete. A polyurethane coat for insulation, sheltered in its turn by a thin plastic shell, covers the new-built structure. In order for the walls and the insulation layers to be protected from the plants’ roots, a distance was kept in-between the plastic layer and the hanging garden.
R&Sie’s Francois Roche explains: 'all our projects are based on a similar protocol; they touch the boundaries of architecture. It takes off from a typically ecological approach, but goes beyond that. People are always curious when they walk by but sometimes they find the system creepy, or even dangerous to some; it is a game of attraction and repulsion.'
Daniel Libeskind’s ‘Sustainable’ Prefab
Daniel Libeskind’s latest creation, The Villa, is a step back from his usual large-scale designs, and an attempt to get his foot into the prefab and sustainability design world. An impressive contemporary home, the home is touted as sustainable and energy-efficient. Unlike most humble and affordable prefabricated design, the 3-story home includes a shiny zinc facade and impressive angles — a far cry from the traditional boxy prefab we have grown so accustomed to seeing. And while Libeskind included several eco-friendly building techniques, some seem to be mighty skeptical.
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Kokopo House Fuses Luxury and Sustainability Under One Roof
The Kokopo House proves that luxury, eco-minded amenities and off-grid living may co-exist. Peering over the top of the forest, the home’s open structure creates a luxurious treehouse-like escape deep within Papua New Guinea’s volcanic region. Open to the elements, the Kokopo House contains no windows, allowing for natural circulation to pass through the barrier-free house. The walls encourage wind movement and cross ventilation through geometric shapes and patterns that are inspired by the flow of volcanic lava.
The Kokopo House was designed to be the luxurious home of a Shipping CEO, but the architects made sustainability a major priority in the making of this unique dwelling. Two water storage tanks, connected to the roof, will collect water to be used for drinking water and for use in the kitchen and toilets. Without a grid to source electricity, solar water heaters will be used to heat water, and low-wattage LED’s will be used throughout the house for light. The stunning regional beauty and tropical climate were both taken into consideration in the design and layout of this structure; and the house will also utilize materials that are indigenous to the area.
by Ginger Dolden
Modular skyscraper for Mexico
In the ever-expanding metropolis of Mexico City, green space is hard to come by. An estimated population of 22 million inhabitants bears an impressive weight on the Valley of Mexico and, in recent years, architects and urbanists have been examining solutions to combat the thickening smog.
This stunning Vertical Park by Jorge Hernandez de la Garza Architects intends to infuse the city with much-needed green space in the form of a modular skyscraper made up of a series of stacking units. The solar-powered structure contains sky-gardens in addition to spaces for living and working, and recycles all of its own water.
Each module can be configured to provide space for public and private use, water and solar collection, and urban farming. This allows for flexibility in design, size, and location - including the potential for relocation throughout the city or the world. The Vertical Park’s steel frame will support solar panels used to power the building’s diverse functions and allow wind to pass through structure on warm days.
New York’s High Line Park in the Sky
An elevated park in the sky built on top of the skeleton of an old rail system? It may have sounded impossible only five years ago, but on 8th June 2009, the eagerly awaited High Line elevated urban park officially opened for thousands of New Yorkers looking to escape the hubbub of the city below!
Renovated / designed by starchitects Diller & Scofidio and James Corner of Field Operations, the High Line was originally constructed in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District in the 1930s to lift dangerous freight trains off of city streets. Abandoned in the 1980’s the High Line went into decay and disrepair and was rediscovered in popular consciousness in 2000, after acclaimed photographer Joel Sternfeld captured the beauty of the industrial relic in photos: overgrown with wildflowers — an abandoned human structure essentially reclaimed by nature in a matter of 20 years.
The most prominent features of the long and winding park are the preserved rail tracks that poke out through the porous layer of concrete that has been cut away in strips here and there emphasizing a linear aesthetic. Lush shrubbery, reedy grasses and watercolor-hued flowers surround the rust-red tracks in a way that seems deliberate yet natural.
Zaha Hadid Green-Roofed Dongdaemun Plaza in Seoul
The new Dongdaemun Park in Seoul, designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid, creates a place for leisure, relaxation, and refuge. The design integrates the Park and Plaza seamlessly as one landscape element, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature.
The form of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park revolves around the ancient city wall, which forms the central element of the composition, creating a continuous landscape that physically links the park and plaza together. The fluid language of the design, by inference and analogy, acts as a catalyst by promoting fluid thinking and interaction across all the design disciplines, whilst also encouraging the greatest degree of interaction between the activities of the Plaza and the public.
The Yorkshire Diamond Pavilion by Norwegian architectural studio Various Architects
Various Architects' project "Yorkshire Diamond" was a finalist in the open international competition for a mobile pavilion for Yorkshire Forward. The Yorkshire Diamond Pavilion is a unique and iconic venue that is designed to represent Yorkshire Forward at events around Yorkshire and Humber or further abroad.
Based upon a set of structural concepts perfected in their collapsible stadium, the inflatable event space is ultra-portable, generates all of its own energy, and is 100% recyclable. A gridded diamond facade conceals a faceted interior space reminiscent of the coal mines found throughout Yorkshire.
The Pavilion designed by the Norwegian architectural studio features an inflatable structural skin, precision-cut by computer-controlled machines, giving the pavilion a flawless wrinkle-free look. It fully inflates in a little more than an hour, and should the pavilion’s lifespan ever come to an end, the entire skin is 100% recyclable through a process called Texyloop.
Additional innovative features include the mounting of solar panels on top of its shipping container, which allows the pavilion to generate energy while it is being transported. Once the structure has been set up, wind turbines will help generate the power needed to maintain the inflatable structure and any lighting systems deployed during the evening. The hope is that the pavilion will be completely self-sustaining and will provide a versatile performance space even in off-the-grid locations.
Coco-Hut designed by Gert Eussen
What do you do if you love treehouses like us, but don’t have a tree to build on? Netherlands-based designer Gert Eussen may have a solution with his Coco-Hut, a cozy and round hut made of scrap and FSC-certified wood. With an element of whimsy, the structure looks a little bit like a beehive with a linear version of the honeycomb texture. The Coco-Hut is also unmistakably cute with its round shape and humble staircase leading inside.
In conceptualizing the hut, Eussen set out to use scrap wood in a creative and replicable way. The waste wood-cuts used to build the hut are from pine beams used commonly in the Netherlands, the pillars holding the hut are scrap Douglas Fir and the door handle is a leftover piece of Beech wood. Then, the whole thing is held together with wood glue and screws so that it is watertight.
Eussen hopes his building methods here will be applicable to other larger construction projects. He said: “The round shape is also universal. Sitting in this structure makes you feel safe and comfortable.” The shape of the hut is also energy- and resource-efficient, all cozy details that make it a prime location for late-night sleeping-bag storytelling.
by Moe Beitiks
baumraum…in the air and on the water
The architectural office Baumraum, Bremen, Northern Germany, specialise in the planning of experimental constructions on the ground, in trees and near or on the water.
The designs of Baumraum are characterised by high and imaginative creative aspiration. Safety and durability of the constructions are important demands. They create individual concepts for private clients, hotels and catering, forest and events.
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Earth Homes: vetsch architektur
"Personal and social change in our global community requires flexible, multi - functionally adapted solutions of our built environment. Unfortunately, most contemporary buildings are the result of conventional thinking in designs of past days. Architecture should not dictate nature, it should cooperate with it."
The Earth Homes of Vetsch Architektur with their curvy forms are an ideal synthesis between form and function. The emotional archaic form is a hommage to the natural environment.
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The Nautilus - Giant Snail-Shaped Home Fit for a Family
The Nautilus, designer Javier Senosiain’s bizarre, snail-shaped dwelling, is a mind-bending union of artistic experimentation and simplified living. Inspired by the work of Gaudí and Frank Lloyd Wright, Senosiain has brought to Mexico City another sparkling example of what he calls “Bio-Architecture” — the idea that buildings based on the natural principles of organic forms bring us back to local history, tradition and cultural roots, in turn creating harmony with nature.
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Eco-friendly Trains for Your Next (and Future) Trips
Today's technology has greatly advanced trains over the past decade becoming faster, lighter, cleaner burning, and more comfortable...
EARTH HOUR 2009
On March 28th, 8.30pm, almost 4000 towns and cities across 88 countries visibly demonstrated their growing concern over climate change