With the long winter months of the post holiday season setting in I can’t help but have thoughts of how lovely it would be to get away and lounge in a hot steaming thermal bath in the mountains of Switzerland, in particular, a certain masterpiece hidden in the mountains of the southeastern state of Graubünden designed by Swiss architect and 2009 Pritzker Prize winner, Peter Zumthor.
The Therme Vals is a hotel and spa built over natural thermal springs and partially embedded into the mountainside, surrounding by gorgeous views of snowcapped mountains in the winter and lush green and colorfull hillsides during the warmer months. The structure itself is build from the exquisite layering of Valser Quarzite slabs from a nearby local quarry. From ArchDaily, “The idea was to create a form of cave or quarry like structure. Working with the natural surroundings the bath rooms lay below a grass roof structure half buried into the hillside. This stone became the driving inspiration for the design, and is used with great dignity and respect.”
“This space was designed for visitors to luxuriate and rediscover the ancient benefits of bathing. The combinations of light and shade, open and enclosed spaces and linear elements make for a highly sensuous and restorative experience. The underlying informal layout of the internal space is a carefully modelled path of circulation which leads bathers to certain predetermined points but lets them explore other areas for themselves. The perspective is always controlled. It either ensures or denies a view.”
From Pete Zumthor, via Arch Daily, “The meander, as we call it, is a designed negative space between the blocks, a space that connects everything as it flows throughout the entire building, creating a peacefully pulsating rhythm. Moving around this space means making discoveries. You are walking as if in the woods. Everyone there is looking for a path of their own.”
The thermal spa sits as part of the mountain, an extension of the landscape. The roof of the structure looks as though the ground plane has been lifted up with the same vegetation as the surrounding landscape that even blooms with the same springtime color.
Below is a tour through a virtual model of the Therme Vals…
The people of Osaka, Japan apparently prefer a bit of green space over watching a live game of baseball. Due to poor ticket sales, the stadium that once inhabitated Osaka proved unprofitable and in 2003 shut it’s doors forever. The image above shows the interesting, organic mix of shopping center, office complex, park and garden spaces that became the next generation of the baseball stadium after being converted into what they now call Namba Parks. The design is by Jon Jerde of Jerde Partnership Architects.
According to the designer, “Given the location [near the railway station], owner Nankai Electric Railway asked Jerde to create a gateway that would redefine Osaka’s identity. So Jerde conceived Namba Parks as a large park, a natural intervention in Osaka’s dense and harsh urban condition. Alongside a 30-story tower, the project features a lifestyle commercial center crowned with a rooftop park that crosses multiple blocks while gradually ascending eight levels.”
“In addition to providing a highly visible green component in a city where nature is sparse, the sloping park connects to the street, welcoming passers-by to enjoy its groves of trees, clusters of rocks, cliffs, lawn, streams, waterfalls, ponds and outdoor terraces. Beneath the park, a canyon carves an experiential path through specialty retail, entertainment and dining venues. Namba Parks creates a new natural experience for Osaka that celebrates the interaction of people, culture and recreation.”
I thought this picture of the Namba Parks entry was pretty amusing. The fact that they require dogs to go in carry bags just gives you an idea of the average size of a typical Japanese dog.
For the World Expo in Shanghai, China 2010 the theme is “Better City, Better Life” and the various country’s pavilions will be reflecting of this theme with a focus on sustainable urban environments of the future. Recently unveiled as the winners of the 6,000 square foot French Pavilion design, Jacques Ferrier Architects have created ‘The Sensual City’ featuring a building sitting in a pool of water for the illusion of floating, covered in a mesh-like skin and solar panels on the roof along with a courtyard with vegetation inspired by the traditional french gardening style but with a modern twist as the garden moves up the walls and over the roof.
The clipped style is a little rigid and maintenance instensive for my taste but definitely reminds me of the gardens I saw in many parts of France. No doubt, they like to clip everything from hedges to trees. But the shapes that move down the interior walls of the courtyard look strangely like those of Zaha Hadid’s Stone Towers. Nevertheless, it maintains an interesting look with the green shapes trailing over and down into the building. I love designs that connect horizontal and vertical planes of vegetation. This gives me some interesting ideas that doesn’t involve continuous clipping…
Peninsula College sits in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains in Port Angeles, Washington and has served the entire Olympic Peninsula since 1965 and occupies over 75 acres. The campus began as small buildings nestled in the woods with covered walkways puncuated by light wells and connected with trails that wound through native rhododendrons, sword ferns, maples and douglas firs.
Now, the campus is undergoing a completion transformation from the quaint little village in the woods to the high-tech, sustainable campus with a few larger buildings set within the natural environment. They are well on their way with several areas showing a whole new pedestrian circulation and new buildings like the one I will be discussing here, the Science and Technology Building by LMN Architects out of Seattle with landscape architects Walker Macy out of Portland.
A secondary entrance has been introduced to the campus which terminates at the brand new and shiny Science and Technology Building which is in the site of the old dormitory building in the southwest corner of campus. The two-story building is oriented to maximize views of the Straight of Juan de Fuca to the north and the Olympic Mountains in the south as well as natural light. Features within the open and airy building include state of the art laboratories for the Chemistry, Physics, Earth Sciences, Biology, and Fisheries programs.
The site itself has a slight slope from the surrounding existing campus buildings and this new one. The grassy area was given an curving amphitheater treatment with inset concrete walls containing lighting and with a shape that slowly splayed outward starting from the straight edge of the building and working its way uphill. A path skirts the edge of the amphitheater, gradually stepping down one level at a time until reaching an entrance door amidst native vegetation. The path then continues out the other side into the courtyard which the building wraps around. Chunky wooden benches decorate the courtyard with a unique twist on the anti-skate detail.
But the most interesting part of this new building is the green roof. The main building itself is a simple U-shape around a courtyard but then there is a smaller building that has completely different materials from the rest of the building and literally looks like it crashed in through the middle of the U, sticking out into the courtyard and slightly diving down at a shallow angle. This is extremely trippy to look at in person. So in the first photo below, where it looks like the building is reflecting in the glass…it’s not, it really is going “through” the glass.
The little building is the one that has the green roof which means that, yes, the green roof goes in through the building as well, visible from the second floor. And while this sounds super cool in theory, the reality of it poses some challenges because the indoor and outdoor environments are quite different. The possibility then of having this completely seamless transition between the two plant communities goes out the window. So to speak.
images via Lisa Town
The outdoor portion of the green roof looks to be doing fairly well, taking on a native wildflower meadow-type look while the indoor portion is severely lacking in vegetation with only a few small plants. It looked to have an added irrigation system but perhaps added a bit too late. I am not sure what happened but it definitely could use some attention. Perhaps it shouldn’t be looked at as being a one unit but rather two totally separate plant communities and really playing that up…the brown vs. the green, the highly cared for “window box” versus the more naturalistic roofscape.
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.
I saw the post in The Dirt recently and recall previous posts on Metropolis and a mention in Forbes regarding NY urban gardenening about Thomas Balsley’s rooftop monoculture forest at 101 Warren Street in Manhatten and I have to say that I’m conflicted about this project.
I’m surprised there isn’t more criticism on this, especially on the line from the Metropolis article, “The goal was to achieve a tranquil place rather than a pretty or functional one.” Wow, I could never imagine saying something like that and getting away with it. I realize that as professionals we are always happy when a green roof is built but shouldn’t there still be dialogue? What do people out there think of this one?
First, I’d like to address the simple fact that this project is built at all is quite the accomplishment. For an owner to decide that hauling up over a hundred large 25 foot tall Austrian Pines via crane onto the rooftop and allowing a 54″ soil depth down into the roof (or does this number include the raised/mounded portion above the roof?) is worth the money and the effort…is huge. HUGE. I remember just last year begging for 36″ with an architect only to have them tell me they would try to give me 18″ but that 12″ was more likely. Which meant that the small pine trees I’d been showing through several phases had been totally ignored in terms of their needs. And you can only build up and mound so much, depending on how much space there is.
While green roofs are popular these days, they are still costly and clients are not always willing to fork out the money for height, no matter how much more we say the value of their property will increase. But with more and more examples being built out there with trees that we are able to point to as designers and provide as successful, working examples to our clients, the better they can understand the benefits versus the cost.
Although, I can’t help but wonder if 54″ is sufficient for trees that could eventually reach 60 feet in height (although perhaps the space will confine their growth and given that this is not a native forest environment, they’ll probably only get to 40′-50′ yet that is still large) and whether trees of that size are even appropriate for rooftop applications, not only for weight purposes but also wind. When I visited the Washington Mutual Green Roof earlier this year, they had some small Shore Pines, maybe 15′ feet tall at the most, that were tied down with several cables all around the trunk. Granted the pines at this mixed-used tower in Manhattan are only planted 2 stories up on the towers podium (this according to tbany.com, although Metropolis says 5 stories up), whereas the trees on the WAMU tower were much higher but I still wonder if wind is at all a factor (wind tunnel effect?) and what kind of precautions need to be taken for stabilization or is the soil depth sufficient for trees of this size? Perhaps it might seem like a silly question but a wind study was done for one project I was working on with a green roof and eventhough the roof space was just a couple stories above the ground we found the wind to actually be quite a significant issue. This is different everywhere, but it was one of the first questions that came to my mind when reading about large trees.
image via Lisa Town
Balsley mentions that he wanted to create a “monoculture of evergreens to emulate the northern forests” and are also an effort to avoid the typical blankets of sedum and highly manicured containers. While large expanses of sedums are a great option for achieving the benefits of a green roof for those that only have 6 inches or less to work with, they are an extensive type of roof and different from an intensive-style roof garden. But a roof garden also doesn’t have to be a high maintenance endeavor with over manicured pots, as Balsley mentions. In fact, I thought the typical point of a roof garden was to create something that was of a benefit to the environment as well as residents and not a maintenance hog? This seems like an over generalization on Balsley’s part in trying to justify the design. In fact the WAMU green roof is a beautiful and successful example of creating a natural and artistic landscape in a rooftop setting and doesn’t include any manicured pots.
Balsley states that the forest is “a different idea of what an amenity should be. It’s not always something you can use.” And this statement is fine (although again, quite bold) in one sense because I agree that the ability to look out into or over vegetation still provides a great amenity. Afterall, wouldn’t you rather look out over vegetation as opposed to other buildings or streets?
However, while it can be fine, albeit unfortunate, that people can’t “use” a roof garden it seems to me like there should be a reason for this other than the designer just not wanting people to. One great reason could be environmental or habitat benefits. Pine trees are excellent habitat for insects and birds and allow for hiding and perching opportunities. While I do like the way it looks to have these pine trees standing like artistic columns in waving mounds surrounded by corten and contrasting river-washed rock it does seem rather unfriendly in some areas and I think it could’ve been so simple to provide maximum habitat benefits without compromising the designer’s vision.
The main thing missing for good habitat is a food source. I realize the point was for a monoculture, hence the choice of Mugo pines as the shrub base for the trees, but if a different shrub or groundcover were chosen that provided flowers and berries, then suddenly there is a food source and that changes the trees from simple perching areas to also providing nesting opportunities as birds want to nest near a food source. The monoculture of trees would still exist and the ground plane could be it’s own monoculture at the trunk base, thus the overall vision would be unchanged yet the environmental benefits would’ve more then doubled just from one simple plant choice revision.
So with all that I ask, does a monoculture of mature pine trees belong on a green roof? Should design vision take precendence over usability or environmental impact? Does one need to be able to “use” a green roof in order to achieve the same benefits? It will be really interesting to see how this forest does in fact grow and mature over the years and how the community and professional view towards the garden grows and changes along with it.
This private home called “Hidden House” designed by Polish KWK Promes takes “hidden” to a whole new level by even incorporating a trap door for entrance into the garage. This is like something I would’ve dreamt up at a much younger age…a grand view from a home no one knows exists.
The architect description says: “The house will be situated in Lower Silesia, in a post-german city, where the majority of buildings are steep roofed villas. Under ground there are thousands of kilometres of partly buried tunnels, which became the starting point of the design idea. The building integrates with its surroundings yet it does not refer to the visible structure, but the underground part of the city. The plot, where the house is designed slopes steeply to the south. The object’s structure has been hidden underground, what in turn has made it completely invisible from the driveway. A huge trapdoor covered with grass is the entrance to a building.”
“The driveway leads underneath the ground, to the living room, which is situated at the same level as a garden. The sleeping part has been situated in a lifted, 25 meters long centilever. It’s length results from arrangement of the bedrooms, which were supposed to be at the same side as the corridor, all with a view of the garden.”
But while this thought of a hidden house may seem as exciting as a fort made from blankets and the kitchen table to a kid, is something like a grass covered trap door realistic? Or is it taking “blending with the landscape” too far?
Another home design by KWK Promes is less futuristic looking and more like a modern take on a daylight basement but without the upper level, kind of similar to the Cooper Point House by architect Mickey Muenning in terms of trying to blend in with the landscape.
This house, called OUTrial House in Ksiazenice, Poland is based on the concept that instead of merely having an atrium that is like landscape carved out a of a house, the house is carved out of the landscape creating an atypical atrium style that is both a part of the interior and the exterior. The green roof remains a private space, like that of a trypical atrium, which is accessible only by way of stairs from the interior.
Text from the architect: “A green clearing surrounded by forest was the only context for the proposed small house. Hence the idea to ‘carve out’ a piece of the grass-covered site, move it up and treat it as the roofing to arrange all the required functions underneath.”
“When the whole was ready, the client came up with another request, to create some space for a small recording studio and a conservatory. The latter was obtained by linking the ground floor with the grassy roof through an “incision” in the green plane and ‘bending’ the incised fragment down, inside the building.”
Just like a daylight basement that, from one side of the home, provides the illusion that the house is only one level, the OUTrial house looks invisible from one side and like a typical one level, modern style house from the other.
Dalki Theme Park is an interesting place in South Korea built by Slade Architecture in the year 2000. The theme park is geared towards children and is based around a cartoon character, Dalki, who is a young girl who lives in a garden with her friends and posseses a wild imagination as well as a heightened sense of fashion. The characters were actually created to help market fashion products.
The building itself consists of primarily shopping but also areas for eating and playing as well as exhibits where children can play with the Dalki characters. According to the architects:
“Learned dichotomies (imaginary/ real, shopping / play, natural/ synthetic, site/ building, culture/ commerce) and scale differences create ”disbelief” and impede users from fully engaging the realization of this imaginary world. Borrowing literary strategies for ”suspension of disbelief”, our fluid organization of space and program blurs these dichotomies and eases users into the ’story’ of Dalki.”
“The building defines three zones vertically; scale-less artificial garden and sky at the ground level, flowing mixed program space on the main level, on the roof a garden and lounge extend the natural landscape, referring to four lush surrounding hills. Rather than abstracting from nature, the building is a synthetic hyper-representation of nature (meta-real): mimicking while questioning the nature of nature.”
In other words, most everything is fake and there are no lush gardens here. The only real landscape is seen of the hills beyond. In fact, the grounds look pretty barren and boring which make the characters, at least to me, look a little scary. And the so-called garden on the roof has got to be the saddest green roof I’ve seen. The pictures are just depressing.
If you look at the model image and compare it to the real pictures…they don’t exactly exhibit this lush, whimsical character. Unfortunately most things from the model that I would’ve thought to be vegetation are instead built and take on more of that cartoon look. And then check out a picture of some kids playing on the roof garden. This is just sad. The tree has been reduced to a colorful mount and the roof garden is splotches of grass, a few shrubs and a fenced area for people. Very sad.
The building, architecturally, seems to posess to interesting spaces within but the spaces surrounding and on top of the building fall flat and are uninviting. For something that is supposed to portray the imaginary world of characters living in a garden, I think they could’ve done so much better.
This is the Cooper Point House by architect Mickey Muenning, an eco-architecture practitioner who has practice for over 30 years in Big Sur on the sunny coast of California but has received relatively little recognition for his work in the field of “green”. What I love about this house in particular is that it doesn’t look like a building that was built and then some plants were designed to sit atop the structure, but rather it looks like the structure was designed to sit beneath the plants.
The understanding of the land is what makes this house work so well. The house is designed such that it fits seamlessly with the landscape but at the same time, takes advantage of it for it’s protection and beauty. It reminded me a bit of the Nine Houses project in Dietikon, outside Zurich, Switzerland by architect Peter Vetsch. Except those seemed a little more hobbit-like and more forced. Had they been on the coast and taking advantage of the views like the Cooper Point House, they might have been better but instead they focused inward and ignored their surrounding. On one hand it can be seen as fostering a sense of community but on the other, it feels like they just popped out of the ground versus being set into the landscape and to live in harmony with it.
The interior of the house itself is beautiful and feels very open and airy, not at all like one is underground. There is a skylight and plenty of sun in this 2,745 square foot home with it’s three bedrooms. There are concrete walls on two sides and all-glass walls on the others. I love the large glass windows that look out over the sweeping grasses and jagged coastline. There is a direct connection with the landscape, both surrounding and beyond.
A couple weeks ago I spent a day up in Seattle as part of a week long visit from a friend which had us touring projects all over the NW. The first project on our list in the emerald city was the Washington Mutual Green Roof. We got lucky in that we had good weather, slightly overcast with some sun breaks but no rain. I actually like rain but it definitely puts a damper on a walking tour. We met up with a few colleagues just before noon to walk up there as a group. One person in the group had a friend still working in the tower and was getting us security access. Sadly, as one of the last people in what she was calling a “waste land”, she said she would be laid off in two months.
We had to show our I.D.’s to get a security clearance tag allowing us onto the elevators. (Which reminds me, I still have a German drivers license and I really need to get a Washington one!) We arrived on the 17th floor to find it pretty empty. It was a lounge area but the televisions had been taken out and all of the outdoor furniture had been taken away on the roof deck as well. No one was sure exactly why or what was to become of the furniture.
The wooden deck was just a huge, open expanse of wood with a lonely fireplace at one end. With the tables and chairs gone, it felt really sad and depressing. But then again, I’m sure that isn’t a feeling merely confined to the 17th floor.
Aside from the missing furniture, the roof looked pretty good. Well, except for the missing glass panel and the huge swath of soil which had been planted in Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’. But that last part was the designers fault. Not the best decision to plant such a large area in a perennial, a good lesson. I’m not sure what happened to the glass.
It was really interesting to see how the lights had been chosen to fit in with the Mexican Feather Grass when at it’s full height. But at this time, with the grass all cut back from the winter, the lights were a bit more obvious. Even though the sweeping field of gold is gorgeous, I kinda liked the winter version of multi colored tufts of green and gold too. It’s kind of a fun texture.
I sure do like the flagstones moving through the grass and how the stones interface with the wood decking. It’s such a pleasant atmosphere. I would love to just sit in with the grasses and eat my lunch. And it’s nice how this area is set back from the edge so it doesn’t interfere with the viewing area around the perimeter.
The original plan was to grab lunch at 16th floor buffet and then eat on the roof deck but with no tables on the roof and the buffet apparently drastically cut back, we decided to head for Pike Place Market. I couldn’t help but wonder about the future of such a lovely green roof. If use of the deck was no longer encouraged, what was to become of it after all the people left?
