Milan's Vertical Forest Wednesday, 12 October 2011 GreenMuze Staff Milan’s Vertical Forest from Stefan Boeri Architects. The Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) will be the greenest building in Milan when completed, which is one of Europe’s most polluted cities. Designed by Stefan Boeri Architects, as part of their BioMilano vision to incorporate 60 abandoned farms into a greenbelt surrounding the city. Each apartment balcony will have trees (900 plantings are planned for the two buildings) that will provide shade in the summer and drop their leaves in winter to allow in winter sunlight. Visit: Via Inhabitat
TEDTalks Have you ever wondered: Am I a human being? Ze Frank suggests a series of simple questions that will determine this. Please relax and follow the prompts. Let's begin ... TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). The Sustainable Prototype / Studio 804 Studio 804’s Sustainable Prototype is a collaboration between the well established graduate student comprehensive studio at the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Urban Planning and the 5.4.7 Arts Center in Greensburg, Kansas. The construction and delivery of The Sustainable Prototype was provided to the 5.4.7 Arts Center on the one year anniversary of the tornado that devastated Greensburg, Kansas. Although the building was developed for the long term use by the Arts Center, its immediate use as the first completed public facility serving as a beacon for the community and its ambitious rebuilding efforts was a motivating factor in its design. Following the tornado, the Greensburg City Council passed a resolution requiring all publicly funded City buildings to be rebuilt to the U.S. Community Being the first permanent community building rebuilt in the town, it was important that it serve many functions. Sustainability Passive Systems Active Energy Systems
Earthscrapers: Is Going Down Instead Of Up A Greener Way To Build? Evolo/via Every year, TreeHugger and all the architectural websites troll through the Evolo competition entries, looking for the most imaginative work from young architects with time on their hands. Sometimes you just have to shake your head and wonder at the creativity and drawing skills. In 2010, I did not pay a lot of attention to Bunker Arquitectura's proposal for Earthscraper, an upside down pyramid in downtown Mexico City. Bunker Arquitectura/via It was not a new idea, and it was not the best iteration of it that I had seen. Earthscraper has become the architectural equivalent of a shot heard ’round the world. She spoke with Jeremy Faludi, who had some issues with the concept: I think it would work much better in a dry area in a northern, colder climate, where solid ground keeps you warm, and the glass top acts as a greenhouse. Evolo/via I discounted it at the time for some of the same reasons; while I admired the density, I didn't think it resolved the environmental issues. evolo/via
Urban Farming - Its fun! One of my best friends who works as an IT Security Technologist at one of the world's largest software companies has a P-Patch where he has been growing veggies. Here's his story and then my comments. "I had fond memories of the Kitchen Garden in my grandparent's house in India. The biggest problem out here is the short growing season and lots of happy weeds... it seems there really isnt a perfect solution for weeds other than pulling them out regularly. This is especially useful for those who have challenges (time, physical or other) in building and taking care of their own organic garden. Window Farming Dont live in a community that has room for growing a pea patch? Aquaponics It is the symbiotic cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a recirculating environment. Aquatic animal effluent (for example fish waste) accumulates in water as a by-product of keeping them in a closed system or tank (for example a recirculating aquaculture system). (Source: Wikipedia) Vertical Farming
Ultra Modern and Luxurious Thailand Architecture Building Ole Scheeren September 10, 2009 by newhouseofart This is great modern architecture building pictures from Mahanakhon Ole Scheeren, OMA Thailand. All people always say that this is best architectural design. No comments yet. Sustainable Architecture: Farm Tower in London London farm tower designed by Brandon Martella rests on the south bank of the Thames River overlooking Potter’s Field. Like a tree the tower collects rainwater and solar energy to maintain survival. Wind is harvested through vertical axis turbines that align the perimeter structure. The residential programmed floors take advantage of cross ventilation through the use of operable windows and louvers while the hydroponic floors are a continual hydronic system recycling the humid green house air content by collecting condensated water on the inside of the ETFE pillows and letting gravity bring the water down through the hydroponic racks. Each farming level contains an open steel grating allowing the tower to function as a cooling stack between the residential and agricultural program. To commemorate the 9th Annual Skyscraper Competition, eVolo is publishing the Limited Edition Book "eVolo Skyscrapers 2" which is the follow-up to its highly acclaimed book “eVolo Skyscrapers”.
Dror Designs...an Island If this comes to fruition, this may be the sweetest, or at least largest-scale design gig we've ever heard of: Dror Benshetrit designs an island for 300,000 inhabitants. Not just the structures they'll live in, but the entire island. The Canal Istanbul project is the current Turkish Prime Minister's plan to bisect Istanbul on the European side, connecting the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. The resultant waterway would create a new shipping lane, reportedly creating a more safe way for 56,000 vessels a year to traverse the two bodies of water. Dredging the canal would produce a reported one billion cubic meters of earth. What to do with all that soil? Called HavvAda, Benshetrit's jaw-dropping plan involves building an island housing six massive geodesic domes, of varying sizes, that will each be incorporated into their own hill. It all sounds compelling, awesome, and crazy.
Twisted Architecture I didn’t set out to tie knots in Norman Foster’s Hearst Tower or wrinkle his Gherkin, but I got carried away. It’s one of the occupational hazards of working with Mathematica. It started with an innocent experiment in lofting, a technique also known as “skinning” that originated in boat-building. Loft uses Mathematica‘s GraphicsComplex primitive to factor out the geometries of the polygons from their topologies. I tried out Loft by embedding it in a Manipulate, and was happily on my way discovering some interesting new forms. Even this trivial parameterization of a scaled and twisted half-sphere yields an amazing variety of forms, each of which suggests interesting avenues to explore. The last of those forms brought to mind Norman Foster’s Swiss Re building in London, nicknamed by the locals “the Gherkin.” I wondered how convincingly I could model the Gherkin in Mathematica. A primitive that has no extra repetition argument is automatically repeated to tile the grid.