Could we design a skyscraper & sewer system with the intent of creating ecological niches all through the building? Some of the work with green roofs touches on this... can your building handle rain like a forest, not produce fast run-off? Maybe even act as a water sink for less well designed nearby areas. You collect the runoff and get all the moss and plants your parking garage neighbor can't be bothered with.
Don't be mad about the bugs in the walls, design walls that attract the best bugs.
@futurebird We should all give more thought to buildings, especially dwellings that are part of an environment. Too often especially here in Nashville where I live, people perceive a house as a capsule cut off from the rest of the world. That includes all the many colleges and churches, which spray tons of herbicides to give their surroundings a clean-shaven look, which is the opposite of a natural look in our ecosystem here (pic attached, as seen from my bed right now: I live on the 12th floor of a brutalist 70s bldg. that requires daily maintenance now).
Think of a LEED-certified campus bldg., say at Vanderbilt U, and a crew of immigrants leafblowing and spraying herbicides from March to October. That's the reality right here.
@futurebird
the hardest part would be getting rid of all the people who think "ecosystem" is a marketing buzzword. After that, there would still be many difficult tasks, but if anyone who thinks of "ecosystem" as a buzzword is anywhere near, all those other tasks would be impossible, rather than difficult.
This is much harder than I'm making it sound. You'd need to pull on all that people have learned about naturally integrated buildings from human history and then recognize that the building would need to be refined and revised until all the systems were balanced.
I get that it's hard, but I don't get why we aren't more focused on going in this direction. Just getting a layer of turf on the roof is like pulling teeth.
Too often "green buildings" become just ... about an aesthetic. Having more plants which is nice, but not really integrating the building into the natural fabric of the city like an organism.
And no one talks about waste and sewer management enough.
One Central Park in Sydney was an award-winning green development.
From Vogue in 2014:
"Sydney’s One Central Park complex says a lot about the possible future of our architecture: that buildings needn’t be a strain on the environment, that more high rise doesn’t have to mean less greenery, and that tall buildings may even be able to improve rather than diminish their surrounds. Designed by Atelier Jean Nouvel, One Central Park in Sydney’s Chippendale has been given 12 awards since its completion in December 2013: it took out the title of overall winner as well as taking out Sustainabilty Award at the international LEAF awards, and has just been awarded ‘Best Tall Building Worldwide’ by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) in Chicago."
Then, in 2022, the planter boxes literally fell off:
"2022 saw a planter box fall to the footpath below, with local Council calling for repairs to protect the public to take place immediately. Structural engineers have been assessing the safety of other planter boxes that adorn the biophilic building, with some boxes supported by ropes to mitigate risk, while 33 have been removed."
Oh, and it also turns out the planter boxes are flammable:
"Category A and B cladding – the two most flammable – were found on the doors, structures (Cat A) and planter boxes (Cat B) respectively, with the dispute currently before the courts after the Planning Department issued an urgent fire safety order in January in the wake of the cladding inspection."
@PaulWermer@ajsadauskas@futurebird The problem is that it's always going to be an extra cost; increasing the price of apartments and increasing the risk to the developer. Highrise buildings are already green by simply being extremely land efficient, anything that makes it more difficult to build highrise is impacting on that massive environmental gain for minor additions.
there's been a lot of work re green building and building impacts - I've seen some of it in discussion of Goldilocks Density for housing.
Turns out high rises are much less efficient than many assume over the full life cycle, and density is less than well designed mid rise. Lots of complex contributing factors. But net is high rises, unless very carefully designed, are not great. Sweet spot seems to be around 6 stories.
And we have a first coat vs total cost problem. A well designed signed green building will cost a bit more to build, but payback on energy savings is pretty fast. Problem is developer pays first cost, and buyers/ renters pay operating annmaintenance costs. Split incentives, occupant is worse off
Add comment