Photo: Danist Soh / Unsplash
THINKING SPACE NATURE
A LOVELY CLIMATE IN OUR CITIES: WE’RE GETTING THERE
Around the globe, greened façades could become the standard. If they become the new normal, what will our cities look like? We want you to have a glimpse at five pioneering buildings.
Photo: Danist Soh / Unsplash
Marina One
Marina One, designed by ingenhoven architects, is one of many greened building complexes in Singapore. Since 2008, the city of five million has made the greening of its buildings mandatory: if green spaces are lost in the process of constructing new buildings, then they have to be replaced elsewhere on those very same new buildings. But Marina One does much more than that: through an innovative distribution of more than 700 trees and hundreds of plant species over several storeys, Marina One now provides 25 percent more green space than was originally there.
FARMING KINDERGARTEN
At the Farming Kindergarten in Biên Hòa, Vietnam, city children can play amidst the greenery. The Vietnamese architectural firm Vo Trong Nghia Architects developed this greened kindergarten for the children of workers at a nearby factory – so that they don’t lose touch with nature, even in these times of ever-expanding cities.
BOSCO VERTICALE
In many metropolises, including Milan in Italy, nature does not get much of a look-in. Why not set about reforesting the densely populated city vertically? The architectural firm Stefano Boeri Architetti came up with the idea of building two high-rise buildings covered with trees.
LIESE-MEITNER-HAUS IN BERLIN’S ADLERSHOF DISTRICT
The building accommodating Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin’s Department of Physics demonstrates what ecological urban development could look like in the future. Rainwater is collected in cisterns both to irrigate the plants climbing up the glass façades and to cool the building.
GRAVIPLANT
Many megacities don’t have enough space on the ground for green spaces. However, there is enough space on houses that could be used to grow trees – albeit horizontally. The company Visioverdis has developed GraviPlant with this in mind – a system that works with rotating plant supply systems.