image courtesy of www.worldarchitecturenews.com

Another exemplar of green architecture has commenced in China last month. The Haitang Bay International Shopping Centre will become one of the world’s largest tax-free shopping experiences in a hi-tech, low-fi environment.

As China is one of the fastest growing economies they have the benefit of utilising the latest technologies when it comes to design and build, as such French practice, Valode et Pistre Architecture (VP Architectes) won an international competition to create this retail oasis covering some 125,00m2.

Based on the form of the Haitang Bay flower (not unlike Grant Associates Gardens by the Bay in Singapore  inspired by the orchid, their national flower), the organic, undulating glass structures will be double-skinned to maximise natural daylight which is further utilised by the inclusion of an atrium. Thus energy consumption should be reduced and inner ventilation increased by the interior garden.

image courtesy of www.designbuildsource.com.au

Milan now holds the title of the residence of the world’s largest vertical garden on a shopping centre at Rozzano, just outside of the city, as reported by Architecture Source . Created at a cost of a cool one million Euros it spans some 1,263m2 and consists of 44,000 plants which were pre-grown in blocks for a year and took some 90 days to assemble on site.

It offers the building an interior temperature control, providing both insulation and protection from direct sunlight, and also purifies the surrounding air, offers noise reduction as well as providing a glorious vista for visitors. Undoubtedly there must be a robust irrigation system and maintenance programme, but as the designs are becoming more and more ambitious this must be proof that these passive energy saving designs are working. There is no doubt that vertical gardens and roof gardens will be incorporated more readily into our urban framework as the benefits become more tangible.

image courtesy of www.greendotawards.com

Arkadien Widdenden is an ambitious industrial regeneration project outside Stuttgart in Germany. Awarded the most sustainable neighbourhood by GreenDotAwards it still retains a village like atmosphere whilst maximising occupancy . Schools are within a ten minute walk and town centre is only a five minute walk away. Recycled products were used extensively alongside non-toxic, environmentally friendly materials.

The lake at the centre of the community, aswell as being a wildlife oasis also acts as a rainwater detention basin. Furthermore, permeable surfaces outweigh impermeable ones 2:1 thus minimising run-off. The designers, Ateleir Dreiseitl, the world’s most sustainable landscape architecture practice outdone themselves by unifying a previously wounded society who were still recovering from the shock of a school shooting in 2009.

image courtesy of Vikki Rimmer, www.presscontact.co.uk

I was so impressed with the Palmstead Workshop I attended last week, I couldn’t fit it all in one post!

Whilst I was inspired and entertained by the talks given by renowned designers Sarah Eberle and James Alexander-Sinclair, as a fellow landscape architect, my favourite speaker of the day was Eelco Hooftman ex. Gross Max.

Having met Eelco before as the external examiner for my MA in landscape architecture I was a little trepidatious, but he excelled all my expectations with a fascinating insight into his own design process. Working alongside Zaha Hadid on many projects his landscape has had to be as exemplary as her architecture and it is this synergy which has cemented his success.

His designs reflect ‘a choreography of movement through time and space’ in which the ‘public realm of the senses’ intensifies the experience. Collaborating with other professionals, such as Piet Oudolf, he utilises the theatre of plants to achieve the desired effect  as can be seen in Potters Fields Park, London.

On the subject of ecology he voiced what we have all been thinking, that we have been suffering from attacks by the ‘Ecological Taliban’ terrified of specifying or planting non-native species and as such he ended his presentation with a credo for all aspiring designers,  ’ We don’t believe in Nature Conservation, we believe in Nature Activation!’

With interesting stall holders including Vectorworks, The Association of Professional Landscapers, Melcourt and The Society of Garden Designers to name a few there was not a moment to be wasted.

This particular post will be dedicated to the first speaker of the day, Glynn Percival from Bartlett Tree Care who educated us on the benefits of sugaring our planting schemes. Basically from the very cheap addition of 30-40g of sugar per litre of water immense root stimulation is achieved which of course means stronger plants. Furthermore, a sugared watering regime can also be used to save trees which may have been sabotaged with herbicides as was seen in the Treaty Oak case in Austin, Texas, thus sugar water injected straight into the trunk becomes a life support for the tree allowing it to recover. The benefits of sugar are further demonstrated in recent trials being conducted on single species mulch. With no mulch added only 1 in 10 beech will survive, whereas with the addition of either hawthorn or cherry mulch, the average survival rate increases to 6 in 10. Obviously any much aids with water retention and weed suppression, but the added benefit of these mulches was due to the higher level of sugars in the species, which is especially prevalent if the mulch is freshly chipped.

Interestingly they have recently discovered that by the application of Eucalyptus mulch the Phytophthora algae can be suppressed, probably due to it’s highly antiseptic properties.

image courtesy of www.eco-baroque.com

At first glimpse I couldn’t see any difference – it appeared to be just a natural desert landscape, but on closer inspection, you can see that certain rocks and pebbles have been coated in goldleaf!

This is such a subtle intervention in the landscape which is a direct commentary on our decadent, transient  lifestyle compared to the timeless stability and beauty of nature. The artists, collectively known as Eco-Baroque spent two weeks in the Gobi Desert selecting suitable locations to gild, record and then wash away their artwork to return it back to it’s natural state. This will hopefully highlight the alarming pace at which the gold, silver and copper mines of Mongolia are being excavated which renders the grazing land of the indigenous peoples useless and hence unbalances the local eco-system and economy in favour of the global market.

image courtesy of www.openfabric.eu

As landscape architects we’ve been preoccupied by the concept of green corridors and how to create them across our urban fabric. London is desperately trying to re-engage with nature in The Landscape Institute’s design competition for it’s very own High Line, and now The Netherlands are keen to revitalise Rotterdam with a strategy for urban biodiversity as devised by landscape architecture practice, Openfabric.

By utilising the existing 634km of transport network made up of trams, metro, rail and bus routes a green highway can be easily superimposed via such simple additions as more planting, green roofs to bus stops, bat and bird nesting and foraging areas incorporated into new station or shelter design.

It is a beautifully simple and effective way to encourage wildlife back to our cities and maybe even encourage more public transport users as they share their commute with a chance sighting of an endangered species. Hopefully this will get the green light sooner rather than later.

With only approximately 1,000 megawatts currently being produced, although that has been achieved in one year, this will hopefully increase to 3,000 megawatts of solar plants which are planned to start in 2013 and some 30,000 + gigawatts of solar power are planned by 2022, according to SolarServer. The recently opened Gujarat Solar Park

image courtesy of www.solarserver.com

commissioned 600MW of energy over a year, but has every intention to become the world’s largest solar park. In order to ensure a fair and competitive marketplace, developers win tenders based on the low cost they can pass the energy on to their customers, which resulted in a drop in prices of 38% in 2010-2011.

I am so pleased that one of the most beautiful, diverse and still cripplingly poor countries of our earth will finally be ecologically self-sufficient in the energy stakes.

The owners and designers, Paul & Pauline McBride were themselves inspired by Piet Oudolf after working with him on a project in Luxembourg and managed to acquire much of their stock on maintenance visits. Just four years ago, they transformed a portion of Pauline’s parents farm into a sensual feast of colour and texture with swathes of densely planted grasses and perennials including: Miscanthus, Calamagrostis, Pennisetum, Stipa, Rudbeckia, Salvia, Echinops, Echinacea, Astilbe, Verbena, Aster, Sedum, Foeniculum – oh, too many to mention,  which get the Sussex equivalent of The Chelsea Chop, burnt to a cinder in February each year and then mulched with green waste compost in time for another brilliant show to begin for summer. That is why they are only open to the public from June – mid October, but it is well worth the visit.

Having only really started wind energy production seriously some six years ago, that some mean feat! They will also, soon, be able to boast the world’s largest wind farm. Currently held by the UK for the Thanet Wind Farm in the North Sea which consists of 100 turbines some 7.5 miles off the Margate coastline producing 300MW, China’s Bohai Bay project when completed in 2020 will produce 1,000MW.