#Green Architecture

[reasonsforhope]

"With “green corridors” that mimic the natural forest, the Colombian city is driving down temperatures — and could become five degrees cooler over the next few decades.

In the face of a rapidly heating planet, the City of Eternal Spring — nicknamed so thanks to its year-round temperate climate — has found a way to keep its cool.

Previously, Medellín had undergone years of rapid urban expansion, which led to a severe urban heat island effect — raising temperatures in the city to significantly higher than in the surrounding suburban and rural areas. Roads and other concrete infrastructure absorb and maintain the sun’s heat for much longer than green infrastructure.

“Medellín grew at the expense of green spaces and vegetation,” says Pilar Vargas, a forest engineer working for City Hall. “We built and built and built. There wasn’t a lot of thought about the impact on the climate. It became obvious that had to change.”

Efforts began in 2016 under Medellín’s then mayor, Federico Gutiérrez (who, after completing one term in 2019, was re-elected at the end of 2023). The city launched a new approach to its urban development — one that focused on people and plants.

The $16.3 million initiative led to the creation of 30 Green Corridors along the city’s roads and waterways, improving or producing more than 70 hectares of green space, which includes 20 kilometers of shaded routes with cycle lanes and pedestrian paths.

These plant and tree-filled spaces — which connect all sorts of green areas such as the curb strips, squares, parks, vertical gardens, sidewalks, and even some of the seven hills that surround the city — produce fresh, cooling air in the face of urban heat. The corridors are also designed to mimic a natural forest with levels of low, medium and high plants, including native and tropical plants, bamboo grasses and palm trees.

Heat-trapping infrastructure like metro stations and bridges has also been greened as part of the project and government buildings have been adorned with green roofs and vertical gardens to beat the heat. The first of those was installed at Medellín’s City Hall, where nearly 100,000 plants and 12 species span the 1,810 square meter surface.

“It’s like urban acupuncture,” says Paula Zapata, advisor for Medellín at C40 Cities, a global network of about 100 of the world’s leading mayors. “The city is making these small interventions that together act to make a big impact.”

At the launch of the project, 120,000 individual plants and 12,500 trees were added to roads and parks across the city. By 2021, the figure had reached 2.5 million plants and 880,000 trees. Each has been carefully chosen to maximize their impact.

“The technical team thought a lot about the species used. They selected endemic ones that have a functional use,” explains Zapata.

The 72 species of plants and trees selected provide food for wildlife, help biodiversity to spread and fight air pollution. A study, for example, identified Mangifera indica as the best among six plant species found in Medellín at absorbing PM2.5 pollution — particulate matter that can cause asthma, bronchitis and heart disease — and surviving in polluted areas due to its “biochemical and biological mechanisms.”

And the urban planting continues to this day.

The groundwork is carried out by 150 citizen-gardeners like Pineda, who come from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds, with the support of 15 specialized forest engineers. Pineda is now the leader of a team of seven other gardeners who attend to corridors all across the city, shifting depending on the current priorities...

“I’m completely in favor of the corridors,” says [Victoria Perez, another citizen-gardener], who grew up in a poor suburb in the city of 2.5 million people. “It really improves the quality of life here.”

Wilmar Jesus, a 48-year-old Afro-Colombian farmer on his first day of the job, is pleased about the project’s possibilities for his own future. “I want to learn more and become better,” he says. “This gives me the opportunity to advance myself.”

The project’s wider impacts are like a breath of fresh air. Medellín’s temperatures fell by 2°C in the first three years of the program, and officials expect a further decrease of 4 to 5C over the next few decades, even taking into account climate change. In turn, City Hall says this will minimize the need for energy-intensive air conditioning...

In addition, the project has had a significant impact on air pollution. Between 2016 and 2019, the level of PM2.5 fell significantly, and in turn the city’s morbidity rate from acute respiratory infections decreased from 159.8 to 95.3 per 1,000 people [Note: That means the city's rate of people getting sick with lung/throat/respiratory infections.]

There’s also been a 34.6 percent rise in cycling in the city, likely due to the new bike paths built for the project, and biodiversity studies show that wildlife is coming back — one sample of five Green Corridors identified 30 different species of butterfly.

Other cities are already taking note. Bogotá and Barranquilla have adopted similar plans, among other Colombian cities, and last year São Paulo, Brazil, the largest city in South America, began expanding its corridors after launching them in 2022.

“For sure, Green Corridors could work in many other places,” says Zapata."

-via Reasons to Be Cheerful, March 4, 2024

[unbfacts]

[wheelie-sick]

I study sustainability and part of my degree involves studying green architecture. I am also a wheelchair user. Walkable cities are ableist.

When people hear "walkable cities are ableist" and immediately retaliate they are usually thinking of a theoretical ideal for cities that isn't currently being put into practice. The problem is, there are new, walkable cities being built across the globe and they are not taking disabled people into consideration. These cities are not theoretical.

These communities are usually being built on privately owned land which can give them exemptions from having things as basic as paved sidewalks and roads. Most of these cities had gravel or dirt pathways, and all of them had large curbs or steps leading to the entrances of buildings. Even when sidewalks were present, the buildings were all multistory, which is necessary for a space to be walkable, however, none of the buildings had elevators. There was not a single community shown that I could actually live in.

The able-bodied people in my classes were consistently appalled by the lack of accessibility because I kept pointing it out. None of them had considered accessibility before I was in the class, and several were majoring in architecture.

If walkable cities were built with disabled people in mind then yes, they'd be hugely beneficial to disabled people, but walkable cities aren't just dreams for the future they are being built right now, and they are being built to keep us out. Walkable cities are ableist.

[architectureandfilmblog]

Barbican Estate, Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, London, 1965-1976

....and we're back! I'd like to apologise for the long absence, and to thank everyone so much for their patience, and for sticking around! Architecture+Film will be resuming regular fortnightly posting from now x

THE KITCHEN (2023)

London's Barbican can be visited cinematically in dozens of movies, documentaries and music videos, many of which have been discussed here in previous posts. Its most recent appearance is in dystopian thriller The Kitchen, starring rapper Kano. The movie makes use of a near-future sci fi scenario to comment on present-day housing inequality. It was filmed in both London and Paris, and the Barbican Conservatory provides the interiors for the central character's workplace, an ecological funeral home. (Photo: me, via instagram)

[witchyplantmc]

i tried something new

[arc-hus]

Gardenhide Studio, London - Commonbond Architects

[gentlemanmotorslifestyle]

[mensministry]

OLM Nature Escape - Eco Aparthotel,

A Design Boutique Hotel Sand in Taufers, Italy

Andreas Gruber Architekten AGA

[humanoidhistory]

Architect Eugene Tssui's wild bio-inspired Venturus concept for a "wind-generated dwelling" in Victoria, Canada, 1982.

[x-heesy]

𝙻 𝚘 𝚟 𝚎 💚

The earth laughs in flowers. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

#Travelingwithoutmoving

#architecture #architecturephotography #architecturelovers #architectureporn #architecturedesign #architecturelover #architecturephoto #architecturedaily #architecture_hunter #architecturedetail #architecturephotos #architecturedose #architectureanddesign #architecturelife #architecturegram #architecturelove #architecturephotograpy #architectures #architectureinspiration #architecture_view #architektur #architekturfotografie #architekturfotograf #architektur_erleben #architekturliebe #architekturporn #architekturelovers #naturephotography #naturelovers #naturelover #natureshots #naturegeography #naturephotographer #nature_perfection #naturephoto #natureaddict #naturegram #nature_brilliance #natureonly #naturephotos #naturelove #naturepic #naturehippys_ #naturepics #naturebeauty #natureperfection #natureshooters #naturelife #naturephotograpy #nature_of_our_world #natureporn #natureseekers #nature_lovers #natureinfocus

What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong

[ombuarchitecture]

Miner Road

Orinda, California.

The clients are a couple of environmental scientists who, along with their two sons, relocated from the Oakland Hills to the warmer climate of Orinda. Their commitment to sustainability, including a request for net-zero energy performance annually, was evident in their thinking throughout the design process. A three-bedroom program began as a remodel of a 1954 ranch house at the foot of a hill next to a seasonal creek. After finding the existing structure and soils to be unsuitable, the direction settled on reusing the existing footprint under the shade of a Valley Oak that had grown up close to the original house. The surviving portion of the original house is the fireplace which was wrapped in concrete and utilized for structural support. This made additional grading unnecessary and allowed the new house to maintain the same intimate relation to the old oak.

By Faulkner Architects

[reasonsforhope]

"In China, a landscape architect is reimagining cities across the vast country by working with nature to combat flooding through the ‘sponge city’ concept.

Through his architecture firm Turenscape, Yu has created hundreds of projects in dozens of cities using native plants, dirt, and clever planning to absorb excess rainwater and channel it away from densely populated areas.

Flooding, especially in the two Chinese heartlands of the commercial south and the agricultural north, is becoming increasingly common, but Yu says that concrete and pipe solutions can only go so far. They’re inflexible, expensive, and require constant maintenance. According to a 2021 World Bank report, 641 of China’s 654 largest cities face regular flooding.

“There’s a misconception that if we can build a flood wall higher and higher, or if we build the dams higher and stronger, we can protect a city from flooding,” Yu told CNN in a video call. “(We think) we can control the water… that is a mistake.”

Pictured: The Benjakitti Forest Park in Bangkok

Yu has been called the “Chinese Olmstead” referring to Frederick Law Olmstead, the designer of NYC’s Central Park. He grew up in a little farming village of 500 people in Zhejiang Province, where 36 weirs channel the waters of a creek across terraced rice paddies.

Once a year, carp would migrate upstream and Yu always looked forward to seeing them leap over the weirs.

This synthesis of man and nature is something that Turenscape projects encapsulate. These include The Nanchang Fish Tail Park, in China’s Jiangxi province, Red Ribbon Park in Qinghuandao, Hebei province, the Sanya Mangrove Park in China’s island province of Hainan, and almost a thousand others. In all cases, Yu utilizes native plants that don’t need any care to develop extremely spongey ground that absorbs excess rainfall.

Pictured: The Dong’an Wetland Park, another Turescape project in Sanya.

He often builds sponge projects on top of polluted or abandoned areas, giving his work an aspect of reclamation. The Nanchang Fish Tail Park for example was built across a 124-acre polluted former fish farm and coal ash dump site. Small islands with dawn redwoods and two types of cypress attract local wildlife to the metropolis of 6 million people.

Sanya Mangrove Park was built over an old concrete sea wall, a barren fish farm, and a nearby brownfield site to create a ‘living’ sea wall.

One hectare (2.47 acres) of Turenscape sponge land can naturally clean 800 tons of polluted water to the point that it is safe enough to swim in, and as a result, many of the sponge projects have become extremely popular with locals.

One of the reasons Yu likes these ideas over grand infrastructure projects is that they are flexible and can be deployed as needed to specific areas, creating a web of rain sponges. If a large drainage, dam, seawall, or canal is built in the wrong place, it represents a huge waste of time and money.

Pictured: A walkway leads visitors through the Nanchang Fish Tail Park.

The sponge city projects in Wuhan created by Turenscape and others cost in total around half a billion dollars less than proposed concrete ideas. Now there are over 300 sponge projects in Wuhan, including urban gardens, parks, and green spaces, all of which divert water into artificial lakes and ponds or capture it in soil which is then released more slowly into the sewer system.

Last year, The Cultural Landscape Foundation awarded Yu the $100,000 Oberlander Prize for elevating the role of design in the process of creating nature-based solutions for the public’s enjoyment and benefit."

-via Good News Network, August 15, 2024

[obsessedbyneon]

A garden Skyscraper in New York City, Roger Ferri, 1979 / 1980. I guess Ferri was way ahead of his time.

Scan

[solarpunkliving]

So one of my plans is to convert this old storage shed/chicken coop into some form of housing and these are some renderings I made to help visualize it.

Front Area

The front area features some bee gardens and plants to attract pollinators. As well as a lattice for any vine plants I'm growing (like cucumbers and tomatoes). It also has a pre-existing porch area that I'd keep as an outdoor work area.

Main Room

The main room (the large pink one) is the living room/kitchen. Although I'll be changing this up quite a bit. The living room is largely furnished with stuff I already own, and the ornamentation (like the beams on the ceiling and the supports separating it from the other room) already exists in the shed.

One of the changes I'm looking to make is to remove that large window and make it a doorway into a greenhouse/kitchen combo. Allowing for indoor gardening year-round, helping keep plant production going during the winter too.

Bedroom

The bedroom (the dark blue one) again utilizes a lot of what I already own. The curtains along the columns separating it from the living room are there for added privacy in the event someone is sleeping but someone else is in the living room.

Workroom

The workroom (the one with the computers in it) is a room for me and my partner when we need to do any work inside the home. Mainly since I'm a developer and he enjoys video games.

Bathroom

This room connects to the bathroom (the smaller pink room). I'm debating if the toilet should be an incinerator toilet so there's no worry of having to install a septic tank or connect to city sewer systems.

Other Stuff

Right now the plan is to have the drains (kitchen drain, sink drain, shower drain) all go to a greywater collection tank. That way, it can be recycled and used for watering the garden greenhouse. Thankfully, where I'm from, rainwater collection is legal (just have to filter it to use in a home). So the rainwater collection can be used for sinks and showers.

Power is still something I need to figure out. A few solar panel calculators I've tried state that around 440sqft of solar panels will be enough to provide power for my current apartment's usage (and we'd use much less in a place like this) given the average hours of sunlight we get per day. So solar is still very much on the table.

But yeah, this is a basic idea right now, but something I'm working on to hopefully bring to fruition in a year or so. I'll be keeping tabs on everything I do to help provide steps and tips for anyone else who may want to repurpose older buildings for living! Or updating their current home to align with solarpunk ideals.

[architectureandfilmblog]

"I wish this shelter to blend with the landscape. I will make it of the rock to be found there, of the lumber to be found there, and I will cover it with the vines that are native"

RUSSEL WRIGHT'S MANITOGA (2011)

This short film from Anthropologie explores the beautiful Manitoga, which was created on a ravaged industrial site in Garrison, NY. The land was regenerated by mid century designer Russel Wright and his wife, designer Mary Einstein Wright, to be a home, studio and garden for their family. After Mary's death, buildings were designed with architect David Leavitt.

The site is open to the public as the Russel Wright Design Centre (although currently closed due to winter weather). It also appears in the documentary ART HOUSE (2016). (Image via Dwell)

[purp24]

What is sustainability?

“the integration of environmental health, social equity and economic vitality in order to create thriving, healthy, diverse and resilient communities for this generation and generations to come. The practice of sustainability recognizes how these issues are interconnected and requires a systems approach and an acknowledgement of complexity” (UCLA, Sustainability).

“Sustainability presumes that resources are finite, and should be used conservatively and wisely with a view to long-term priorities and consequences of the ways in which resources are used. In simplest terms, sustainability is about our children and our grandchildren, and the world we will leave them” (UCLA, Sustainability).

============================

“Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. To pursue sustainability is to create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations” (EPA, Sustainability).