When Trees Meet Buildings

in an effort to create a more pleasant healthier and sustainable built environment architects engineers and developers are creating increasingly greener structures and doing it in a more literal way than ever before this is what happens when trees meet buildings [Music] buildings with trees are actually nothing new the mythical Hanging Gardens of Babylon are often imagined as a stepped palace of terraces containing numerous trees shrubs and exotic flowers although no such building was found during excavations in Mesopotamia and this existence has been subject to much debate artists have kept this imagery alive in their paintings throughout the centuries the current revival of green architecture began in the 1970s when the energy crisis coupled with growing awareness of humankind's impact on the environment propelled architects and engineers to think more carefully about sustainable development although there are many different ways to approach sustainable building design an increasing number of architects and engineers began to incorporate green roofs and other energy-saving measures into their projects a prominent example of this is the Willis Faber and Dumas headquarters in Ipswich in the United Kingdom designed by Sir Norman Foster and completed in 1975 the building features a reflective double leaf facade and the grass covered roof which could be used as a breakout space for the firm's employees other approaches advocate integrating trees and plants within buildings often to soften the psychological impacts of living in modern cities one of the most idiosyncratic proponents of this approach was Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser who designed an apartment building and a number of hotels throughout the 1980s and 90s incorporating mature trees in Vienna and elsewhere across his native country since then research has demonstrated that green space can have a substantial physical and psychological impact on our urban environments studies have shown that even a small park can reduce local surface temperatures by as much as 7 degrees Celsius while urban trees planted long streets can reduce temperatures by up to 3.9 degrees Celsius green roofs also perform well their temperatures can be as much as four point four degrees Celsius cooler than conventional roof finishes and if used across an urban area could reduce temperatures by as much as seven degrees Celsius the benefits of temperature regulation can also be found in deciduous trees which offer passive solar shading in the summer while allowing the sun's rays to penetrate deep into a building's floor plan during winter months trees can also reduce the amount of exhaust gases and particles in the air with some studies claiming that they helped reduce local concentrations of nitrogen oxide by up to 57% aside from their physical impacts there is powerful evidence that the inclusion of plants within our built environment can deliver psychological benefits to hospital patients with views of green spaces have had faster recovery times and plans have been shown to reduce stress amongst office workers which in turn increases their productivity this can often lead to extensive planting being added to existing structures either as a way to replace lost habitats or decrease urban heat island effects or to create green spaces for the benefits of people living and working in dense urban areas projects of this kind include Chicago's green roofs projects launched in 2001 as well as linear parks such as the 1993 promenade plant a in Paris this was the precursor to the hugely popular Highline that now occupies a disused elevated freight railway in Manhattan which first opened in 2009 and Thomas Heather Wix unrealized Garden Bridge in London proposed in 2013 arguably more exciting is the growing trend of integrating entire trees into built structures leading to increasingly ambitious projects with deep strategically placed planters that provide enough space for tree roots to develop one of the most impressive examples of this is across a cultural center in Fukuoka Japan first opens to the public back in 1995 this 14 story building designed by a million bars steps down to meet the city's 10 gin Central Park the building contains deep planters along the edges of its terraces that allow trees to take root and grow its 5,400 square meters or 58 thousand square feet of greenery contained some 37,000 plants representing 76 different species when it first completed today it contains more than 120 varieties of plants and over 50,000 individual specimens architecture office MVR DV took a similar approach when designing the netherlands pavilion for the 2000 expo in Hannover Germany here the entire fifth floor of the structure was given over to a forest in which deep planters accommodated mature trees although the structure has since fallen into disrepair with the mature trees dying off a new generation of shrubs and trees has since colonized the structure proving the soundness of the principle later in the decade architecture and engineering firm whoa-ha designed the Royal Pickering Hotel in Singapore which included extensively planted terraces at four story intervals featuring tropical shrubs vines and palm trees this building completed in 2013 just a year before the twin towers of boss go vertically or the vertical forests in Milan conceived by Stefano berry architects these residential towers standing 112 meters and 76 metres tall respectively in central Milan are the first successful example of tall buildings fully covered in trees standing between three and six meters tall when they were first planted the trees will be allowed to reach a maximum height of nine meters before being pruned in order to ensure their stability in the wind the trees are tethered to the building using steel wires structurally buildings that incorporate trees will of course require special consideration and additional strengthening and reinforcement in areas in the case of bosco vertically the additional cost of this reinforcement was clearly offset by benefits and did not prevent the project proceeding there are other issues to consider were mixing trees with buildings - such as the embodied carbon of the steel using reinforcement or building super structures and the increased demands placed on maintenance in this example the project team were able to use Milan's excess underground water to cultivate the trees minimizing the towers ecological footprint another challenge posed by this new building type with large amounts of potentially flammable organic matter attached to facades is fire principally Engineers use established guidelines for green facades and green roofs to ensure their buildings meet fire safety regulations regular pruning and irrigation also help to mitigate the risk of fire as does ensuring that the soil contains a relatively low percentage of organic matter learning from his work in Milan Stefano brewery is currently working on a number of similar projects in places such as Switzerland China and the Netherlands the concept of incorporating trees into buildings is also employed across Southeast Asia and features heavily in the work of Vietnamese studio votre mère who have incorporated trees into buildings as diverse as private residences through to a university office in Hanoi currently under construction in taipei belgian architect vincent Calibos Agoura tower based on the form of a DNA double helix will feature extensively planted balconies meanwhile in Shanghai British designer Thomas Heather wicks 1000 trees a mixed-use building that features trees and shrubs on its structural columns is nearing completion and in the UK Heather wicks Maggie's Centre in Leeds uses its roof to create a stepped garden complete with trees and lush vegetation in Singapore whoa-ha continued to design green architecture including the Oh Asia hotel downtown a 27 storey tower that features a trellis light facade and three large sky terraces with three pools and palms this innovative structure was named best tall building worldwide in 2018 by the council on tall buildings and urban habitats the designers and engineers working on the latest generation of tree scrapers have also decided to tackle the issue of embodied carbon and the considerable amounts of energy consumed we're manufacturing steel and concrete increasingly carbon negative materials such as cross laminated timber or glue laminated timber commonly known as glue lab are being used high-rise structures such as the proposed 18-story tree tower Toronto by Pender or this 350 meter tool theoretical proposal for summer Tomo forestries headquarters in Tokyo by Nick n Sakai demonstrate the continually growing trend of incorporating trees into buildings and the work of today's architects and engineers to push this concept to it's very limits if you enjoyed this video and would like to get more from the definitive video channel for construction subscribe to the b1m you [Music]

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Views: 2,770,647

Rating: 4.8636312 out of 5

Keywords: BIM, B1M, TheB1M, Construction, Fred Mills, Trees, Buildings, Vegetation, Plants, Architecture, Bosco Verticale, Stefano Boeri, Milan, WOHA, Singapore, Skyscraper, tower, green buildings, green, sustainable, green roof, green facade, Bosco verticale, Vertical forest, ACROS, Fukuoka, Royal Pickering, Oasia Downtown Hotel, MVRDV, Hundertwasser, Vo Trong Nghia, Treescrapers

Id: 4w7lsydq8ks

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 01 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/jangwao]

Hope it won't collapse and balconies we're designed for that 🤗😳