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Green Roof Design by Spanish based firm ON-A architects. “Go Green” — the phrase sounds impractical when dealing with trends and technology, but ON-A architects has managed to merge contemporary housing with nature in this single family house — designed by architects Jordi Fernández and Eduardo Gutiérrez in Barcelona, Spain. This recent project consists of a mind-blowing sustainable and eco-friendly environment, both inside and out. It forms an inner envelope of circulating fresh oxygen with well-conditioned comfort, providing its occupants with an extremely natural space — like hibernating under a lawn of wonders. The Surrounding Area and Natural Perks This simple detached house lies in the characteristic landscapes of the plain of Vic, in the town of Tona. The house, op...Read More

Looking to interject color into a blighted landscape?  It may be easier than you think. Combine clay, compost, native seeds and water, and you have the fixings for a classic clay seed ball.  The seed ball, a preferred weapon of the guerrilla gardener, is an inexpensive way to cover expansive areas in a short period of time. The first recorded use of the term “guerrilla gardening” was in New York’s Bowery-Houston area by Liz Christy in 1973.  Christy and her group transformed a neglected private lot into a garden.  Today, this space still exists, maintained by volunteers and overseen by the parks department.  Since the 1970’s, Guerrilla Gardening has exploded in popularity and use as a method of improving our abandoned spaces. Johnny Appleseed and The Diggers Surprisingly this methodo...Read More

Street trees play an important role in our urban environment: filtering air pollution, mitigating wind effects, stormwater attenuation, and decreasing the urban albedo. Not to mention the more subjective benefits of aesthetics, improved quality of life and increased property prices. It is perhaps shocking then that the University of Pennsylvania places street tree mortality 8-10 years after planting at a staggering 57%, and the average life expectancy of a street tree in London is just 10 years. The Greater London Authority estimates that there are just under 500,000 street trees in London. Some of these trees were planted by the Victorians over 100 years ago. So why are so many newly planted trees in our urban environment dying, and what can we do to ensure new street trees thrive? Two Ma...Read More

Baan San Kraam by Sanitas Studio The Baan San Kraam residential development completed in December 2013, in Cha-Am, Petchaburi, Thailand encompasses 266 units. Out of the 13 buildings in the master plan, only two have direct views to the Cha-Am beach. The designers were faced with a specific and unique challenge: bring the beach to the remaining 90% of the development that does not border the ocean. The overarching concept was to create a holistic setting that mimics the seascape. Designers allowed the nautical theme to influence every aspect of the site design including circulation, vegetation, topography, and building orientation. The Vision: The design team was charged with integrating the beach theme into the entire residential development. The vision was to create unique zones so each ...Read More

Some pieces of art are meant to be admired from above, from a bird’s-eye view. They are always large, usually very impressive, and have been known to humanity for quite a while – long before the Google Earth era. Some of the notable examples that must be mentioned include the Uffington White Horse, Cerne Abbas giant, the Long Man of Wilmington, Osmington White Horse, the Nazca lines in Peru and some of the modern ones – the works of Jim Denevan or Jaroslaw Koziara. The role of these prehistoric pieces is often uncertain and a matter of much speculation; the modern installations are a part of the land art movement, which brings together art and landscape. There are many artists worth mentioning and numerous land art installations deserving of an article. However, one piece is particul...Read More

The Ambitious Cykelslangen by DISSING+WEITLING enables Copenhagen’s vision to become the best cycling city in the world by the end of 2015. Copenhagen is now home to a 235-meter-long orange snake that meanders 5.5 meters high above sea level from Havneholmen through the mall Fisketorvet, ending at Kalvebod Brygge. This “snake” is actually a ramp and a bridge, called the “Cykelslangen — The Bicycle Snake,” that provides more than 12,000 bicyclists with a safe route through this busy district every day. The architecture firm DISSING+WEITLING was asked to design a ramp to replace a nearby staircase. Instead of just designing a simple ramp, they went a step further and designed a bridge. The result is a destination and focal point that can be seen for miles from the air and has als...Read More

Maintenance is one of the most important aspects of making sure your landscape project survives- both literally and figuratively! When designing green walls, one key consideration is how a maintenance team is going to reach all of the parts of the garden. Many standard maintenance procedures for vertical gardens are the same as for any piece of landscape architecture, but there are a few things that may catch you off guard… Green Wall on Le Pont Juvénal, Août 2008. Image © Patrick Blanc Many vertical gardens are maintained by someone other than the building owner. Various vertical garden distributors offer maintenance packages that cover differing amounts of time. If a maintenance contract is signed, it is very important that the duration and scope of the work is well defined. Many v...Read More

Green Wall with bikes at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, Mexico City. Image via Wikipedia Vertical gardening is currently very trendy in landscape architecture and interior design. With trendiness, sometimes comes stagnation in design. Perhaps due to a lack of codes and guidelines in many cities, vertical gardening remains a flexible umbrella term for a variety of designs. This post will explore some of the world’s more innovative vertical garden designs. The following projects show the concept of vertical gardening pushed to the extreme in terms of engineering, materiality and concept. Often design offices are competing for the ‘biggest,’ ‘best,’ and ‘most diverse’ projects, but this list is here to show you that sometimes it is more fun to break out of the proverbial ‘bo...Read More

Robertson Building Biofilter by Nedlaw. Image ©  Tamara Urben-Imbeault Biofilters are a relatively new and innovative technology in the world of vertical gardens that combine the fields of landscape architecture, building architecture and horticultural science. A biofilter is broadly defined as a hydroponic vertical garden that has been designed to pull air through the growing medium to filter it. (See the previous post “A History of Vertical Gardens from Simple Vines to Hydroponic Systems” for more information about different types of vertical gardens). By passing through the felt growing medium, microbes on the plant roots can filter out up to 85% of the harmful Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from of the air. These gardens can be independent of, or built into, a building’s HVAC system...Read More