A New York-based architecture firm with an interesting name, Ginseng Chicken has designd a Fibonacci Spril-inspired building for the Liverpool’s National Wildflower Center. The concept for the building, which houses such activities as seed processing, plant production and education, is to create a form that would provide a seamless relationship with nature, mathematics and physics. The architects, via Arch Daily, describe it as providing “an operational hub for creative conservation, learning and innovation.”

“The spiral form is layered to divide the complex pragmatically. The lower spiral contains conference rooms, classrooms, and a community room; above, a pebbled floor provides the base for operational programs, such as the seed processing rooms, while a sustainable wildflower screen provides enclosure; the uppermost level offers a continuous circulation path along a PV paneled covered roof.”

“The wildflower screen is a self-standing sustainable skin that creates a greenhouse condition to develop an energy saving system. “The double-skinned screen enhances the building’s energy-saving performance through features such as seasonal daylight control by varying pot arrangement, water irrigation systems, and living machines,” stated the architects. The screen provides an aesthetic texture to the façade and allows users to stay connected with the exterior gardens, even while occupying the interior spaces.”

images via Arch Daily

Honestly I’m not that impressed by the looks of the wall screen. It seems a bit messy and is really just pots set in hoops. Kinda boring and not at all elegant. I also don’t understand how the plants are watered or how the system is self-sustaining. An irrigation system is mentioned and shows some sort of cascading gravity system in the section but I can’t figure out how it works in reality given the other pictures and the angles.

Also, here’s an interesting product I came across recently from Loop called Biowall that kind of resembles the wall structure that held planters for the National Wildflower Center, but on a smaller scale and with a more interwoven texture that would just allow for plants to climb on. It sort of looks like artistic chicken wire in a way.

Loop describes BioWall as: “springy fiberglass rods are bowed into rings and woven into several dodecahedra that in turn are joined together. The woven fibres create a balance between the rigidity of sheet material and the flexibility of a textile. The structure is based on the principle of self-similarity enabling it to work from the nano to the macro scale. It can be seen in our natural environment in the formation of bubbles, living cells and water molecules. With plants creeping and crawling around the structure, BioWall can become an indoor, living hedge that divides space.”

images via Loop

A big question that is always on my mind has nothing to do with future technology but rather how we make things work in a more susatainable way for the way things are now. No one is going to go around tearing down skyscrapers to build all new ones, so while we are continually working towards healthier cities and sustainable technologies….what do we do with what we already have?

Living roofs and walls are perfect for retrofitting buildings in a way that doesn’t have to make any changes to the structure and Australia-based 1:1 Architects have come up with a solution for skyscrapers in Melbourne. From Arch Daily: “’Our green roof concept is a flexible modular system, designed to adapt to varying scale rooftops and respond to differing site conditions and functional requirements,’ explained the architects. The roof provides a new atmosphere for the existing buildings where a variety of activities, such as an informal meeting or a simple lunch break, can be held.”

“The green roof is a completely separate entity from the existing structure. The structural timber frame, which sit upon the ‘Versijack’ footing system, provides a platform for users to access the planting crates. These crates create a shelving system that displays different plants. The packing crates, comprised of a CHEP recycled material and usually filled with indigenous Australian grasses that can tolerate high temperatures, vary in depth depending on the plant density and type. The plants help filter the airborne particles that pass over the area, creating a space with cleaner air for its occupants.”

images via Arch Daily

It seems no matter how many or how little plants people put in an area, they always like to point out that they will make the air cleaner. But by looking at the images, there isn’t a huge amount of vegetation in relation to the roof and the cleanliness of the air is not likely to be all that different. However, it’s nice to see retrofitting efforts and this one looks like a good possibility for some rooftop community gardening in how they have the crates setup, even though they don’t discuss this. With such a high demand these days all around the world for urban garden spaces, the rooftop as a possibility for community gardening makes sense. Then maybe people can use their fire escapes for something else, like escaping fires perhaps.

These images follow my thinking in that everything that be beautiful if you look at it right. Sydney-based photographer, Mark Mawson, captures these amazing images from simply dropping paint into water. More images from the Aqueous series can be viewed here.

images via Mark Mawson on Behance