-
Veg.itecture #24
I decided to clean out the archives of great vegetated architecture – partly from necessity and partly spurred a special Architectural Element feature on Vertical Gardens from A Daily Dose of Architecture and by the recent coverage in the NY Times Design & Living 2008 special mag, featuring the likes of Ann Demeulemeester’s vegetated Seoul…
-
Veg.itecture #23
It’s been a wild week – and finally settling down to getting some posts that have been in process finished up and out the door. (That is, before heading back to work 🙂 Although Martha Schwartz would disagree, I’m still betting on vertical and horizontal building greening as a way of redefining landscape architecture for…
-
Listen to your Martha
It’s not often I hear something that really resonates with the profession of landscape architecture – particularly from one of the major players in the profession. It’s definitely less-often I hear this from Martha Schwartz, whom is better known for edgy design and controversial project aesthetics than sustainability. A recent BBC article offers her surprisingly…
-
Regional Green
A busy week, and apologies for lack of posting. I’m well under my once-a-day quota for March, but alas – work is hopping with exciting projects in the region. As I mentioned in a previous post, we tend to take for granted the innovative projects that come out of the Pacific Northwest. The recent National…
-
It’s an Eco-Planning World
Time to re-engage with the amazing eco-planning happening around the globe. We took a tongue-in-cheek look with the Suburb Eating Robots, as well as a more in depth and serious look at Auroville, a visionary community in southern India. For a great follow-up to this project, read Brice Maryman’s first-person account of a design-build trip…
-
Veg.itecture #22
I’m giving a presentation next week at work about Vegetated Architecture, and spent a good amount of time sifting through some interesting additions, as well as some old favorites from the archives. It is interesting when compiling this information to see how the evolution of the concept has occurred over the very brief amount of…
-
AIA 2008 COTE Top-10
The recently announced winners of the 2008 AIA COTE Top Ten Winners unearthed some fantastic projects – and a whole lot of sustainable features and some Vegetated Architecture as well. In honor of Earth Day 2008, we thought it appropriate to showcase those verdant and green selections here. The Yale University Sculpture Building and Gallery…
-
Reading List: Inspired by Nature: Plants
This past weekend, I swung by my local mecca of all things printed word, and as always was both struck and disappointed with the selection of architectural titles. One they had in the newish ‘green building’ section at Powell’s was ‘Inspired by Nature – Plants: The Building Botany Connection’ by Bahamon, Perez, and Compello (published…
-
Go: West 8 Young Man
I try to hide my distaste or love for things landscape+urbanist in the quest for some sort of neutrality (um, ok, not really). Without critical evaluation and dialogue – we lack the capacity to expand our thinking and examine our interventions in ways that are beneficial to us individually and collectively. Or in short, we…
-
Metropolitan Fauna
One major theme that our Integrating Habitats winning team entry was the ability to address the interwoven patterns of urban fauna and urban form. There are numerous reasons why keeping a vital mix of flora, and fauna, along with people, is essential to the proper functioning of cities and urban processes. This investigation of species…