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.”
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.”
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.”
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.
I find the pattern of fingerprints fascinating. No two people in the world have exactly the same print and not even the fingers on your own hand may all have the same style of swooping ridges. This makes for an endless number of patterns. Some cultures believe that ones prints are indicators of thier personality or even their destiny.
The way the lines ebb and flow like the currents of a stream are very interesting to study. Features resembling natural topography can even be identified like a ridge, valley, fork or delta. But with as many different prints as there are in the world, they can be broken down into basic categories and are often classified into the following: loop, whorl and arch. These patterns can be used in design like the picture at the top of the Fingermaze by Chris Drury in Hove Park in the UK which used stone set into the turf. Another artist inspired by the swirling lines isKevin Van Aelst who designed his finger prints into some typical objects as if seeing fingerprints appear in things like spilt suger in everyday life.
I’m not entirely sure what to think about this article from Popular Science. I could argue both sides. I mean, it’s good news in one sense but one of those things where if it were to take the place of the real version it terms of people “placing” trees around the city versus planting real ones, I would certainly have an issue with it. Especially the idea of a synthetic forest, yikes!
A little on the functionality from the Popular Science article “The ‘tree’ uses plastic leaves that capture the carbon dioxide in a chamber. The carbon dioxide is then compressed into liquid form. The tree captures the carbon without the need for direct sunlight, which means that, unlike traditional trees, the synthetic trees can be stored in enclosed places such as barns, used anywhere, and transported from one site to another regardless of conditions.”
And also this interesting little bit, “the captured CO2 could be used to create fuel for jet engines and cars, the two most common carbon emitters. In other cases, the CO2 could be used to enhance current production of vegetable produce.”
Synthetic trees could be interesting for the indoor environments where there is no sun or no windows. Perhaps instead of taking place of real trees, they could instead take the place of those horrific fake plastic trees…in fake plastic earth… (cue Radiohead).
Monday June 29th 2009, 6:32 pm
Filed under: Infrastructure
image via Lisa Town
When I first entered Gibralter as part of a trip through southern Spain last year, via double decker British style bus of course, the first thing I noticed was the fact that the main road in and out, just past the Spanish border, cut right through an airport runway. I know there’s not a whole lot of space there with all that water and a big rock in the way, but was that really the best planning solution? Of course, at the time, I kept thinking….no, that can’t really be the actual runway. Planes don’t go right on through the main public access road, right?
Well, as it turns out, they do and the runway even made it in this website showcasing “4 of the World’s Strangest Airport Runways” and with the accompanying pictures from the article below. Text from site:
“Gibraltar Airport’s single runway is one of very few in the world (and certainly the largest example) to intersect a public road. That’s correct: a public road. Operating similarly to a train crossing, traffic travelling along Winston Churchill Avenue in Gibraltar is brought to a halt each time a plane either lands or takes-off, causing the spectacle seen in the photos [below].”
Another interesting one is the Funchal Airport’s Extended Runway on the island of Medeira where the extended runway doubles as a covered vehicular parking garage. “When engineers were looking for a viable way to extend Funchal Airport’s dangerously brief runway, they cleverly opted to ‘rest’ the enormous structure on 180 pillars, each measuring 230ft, rather than using landfill to support the strip. The result is a unique, safe runway which now also houses a car park underneath its extension. The newly adapted runway also won the IABSE’s Outstanding Structure Award in 2004.”
In late May, Seattle’s Mayor Greg Nickels unveiled a new idea for Bell Street between 1st and 5th Avenue, the idea for a transformation into an urban park boulevard. While the street currently carries the city’s green street designation, it isn’t much of a green street at all as it is under landscaped and doesn’t carry a pedestrian-friendly atmosphere. But this proposal would seek to not only move towards a more true complete green street, but to create a much more grand gesture in Seattle’s densest neighborhood that currently has a severe shortage of green space.
The proposal would mean that Bell Street would lose one travel lane and one lane of on-street parking in exchange for the much larger 26′ pedestrian space on the north side. While this would mean less parking for residents and businesses, the idea is that the trade off would be worth it in the stronger connection from the waterfront to the Belltown neighborhood, increased pedestrian activity that would help to discourage crime. And by trasferring the jurisdiction of the area to the Parks Department would allow for a much higher level of maintenance including a higher level of patrol and the ability to issue park exclusions from the Seattle Parks and Recreation’s urban park rangers and the West Precinct police officers.
Improvements to the area would include such things as new lighting for safe and well-lit sidewalks, more trees and natural vegetation, swales, vegetation in the right of way on the south side to collect and clean rainwater and larger areas for outdoor seating and cafe-style eating along with children’s play areas and perhaps even a plaza and space for a water feature. If approved, each block would be designed in close collaboration with the community this fall.
The most interesting and ingenious part about the proposal is that, according to the Seattle Times, “Work on the park boulevard could piggyback on a current City Light project to replace utilities beneath the street — which requires tearing up the sidewalk anyway, said Norm Schwab, legislative analyst for the city. He said the proposal is a creative, inexpensive way to put in a downtown park, where land costs can run $300 to $350 a square foot. Since the Bell Street section is already owned by the city, it wouldn’t have to pay for the land. Instead, about $150 a square foot would go solely to developing the park.”
The proposal for the new 17,000 square feet of urban park space would need to use $2.5 million from the $146 million Parks and Green Spaces Levy approved by voters in 2008 and be completed in 2010. The City Council is scheduled to vote on Monday regarding the decision to spend the money for the new park boulevard.
Gum, it’s everywhere…it’s on buildings, ont he sidewalk, under restaurant tables. But when does gum go from defacing and trashing public space to acting as public art? Like the gum wall in Post Alley near the Pike Place Market in Seattle, pictures above, or the tree covered in gum in Coyoacan outside Mexico City near Hidalgo Plaza, pictured below.
How or why is it that a place becomes ok to put gum on, even to the point where it becomes well-known because of the gum and people know it as a place to visit, have their picture taken in front of it and to leave behind their own gooey addition to the art. Some people even draw things in the substance as if it was a spray can, proclaiming their love for someone or just letting people know that they were there. It becomes a source of expression.
Artist Simone Decker from Frankfurt, Germany has obviously been inspired by the idea of gum in public places. She placed sculptures all over Venice, a project that she has named “Chewing in Venice”, for the Venice Biennale 1999. These public art installations take gum in the public environment to a whole new level. I wonder what it would feel like to touch one.
The recently opened Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel sits on 2.7 acres as part of Thornton Place, a transit-oriented, mixed-used development just south of Northgate Mall in Seattle and adjacent to the I-5 corridor. What was once a parking lot for overflow mall traffic, the Channel now acts as both a neighborhood amenity with pedestrian pathways and overlooks as well as a way to slow and treat runnoff from the surrounding 680 acres, while also providing much-needed habitat.
According to Seatle Public Utilities, the Channel works by diverting “stormwater from the drainage pipe under the site to a series of surface scales (or small ponds) landscaped with special soils and native plants. These swales slow down the water, allowing it to seep into the soil, and remove pollution before the water reaches the creek.”
As landscape architects and civil engineers for the Channel project, SvR Design out of Seattle worked closely with Seattle Public Utilities and the Northgate community for the design and construction of this new amenity that is targeting up to 91% average annual runnoff for water quality treatment. From their website:
“The channel provides habitat and functions as a bioswale, mimicking the structure of a natural stream bed and riparian zone with a central base flow channel and densely vegetated banks. The site provides water quality treatment and accommodates seasonal high flows. The water for treatment comes from Interstate 5, Washington’s busiest freeway, as well as the North Seattle Community College campus, Seattle’s north end public transit hub, nearby arterial streets, and the Northgate Mall. Plant mix includes a blend of 18-inch to 36-inch tall reeds, rushes, sedges, and shrubs to provide year-round flow resistance and contribute to urban habitat and biodiversity.”
The project also acts as a model for the Northgate area and other neighborhoods lying in the watershed of a stream many people didn’t even realize existed due to years of development crowding the stream and forcing into it’s current narrow state which has caused higher water flow and more bank erosion. And with such a large amount of paved surfaces surrounding the water body, there was little area for the rainwater to seep into the ground naturally which meant contaminants would flow directly into the stream. But now, this is a first step towards fixing the problem and a sollution that sits well with many supporters for Thornton Creek’s restoration.
While the project is now open to the public, it will take another year for the vegetation to get well-established and grow into its full glory. But until then, people can enjoy the trails, the water and the sound of dragonflies buzzing in the air, a sound once uncommon to this area.
Waterlife is a film that “tells the epic story of the Great Lakes by following the cascade of its water frm northern lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean, through the lives of some of the 35 million people who rely on the lakes for survival.“.
Check out the theatrical trailer above and visit the sleek and fluid website to explore video clips, imagery, music and some of the stories that make up the movie which is a co-production between the National Film Board of Canada and Primitive Entertainment, Inc. The movie also boasts a pretty decent soundtrack with artists like Brian Eno, Sigur Ros and Sufjan Stevens lending their names to the cause, to name a few and is narrated by Gord Downie, lead singer of The Tragically Hip.
“Providing Earth with 20 percent of its surface fresh water and its third largest industrial economy, the Great Lakes are a unique and precious resource under assault by toxins, sewage, invasive species, evaporating water and profound apathy. They are also one of the planet’s great preserves of extraordinary wilderness beauty and a bounty of unique species. Filled with fascinating characters and stunning imagery, Waterlife is an epic cinematic poem about the beauty of water and the dangers of taking it for granted.”
