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Green Screen Eco-friendliness is the new sexy in architecture. Can you name the architects of these TUSVDUVSFT UIBU QSPWF HSFFO JT EFmOJUFMZ JO Written by Mel Patrick Kasingsing
Illustrated by Eldry John Infante 1
Bosco Verticale
Trees on buildings? This quintessential example has 900 trees, 5,000 shrubs, and 11,000 floral plants distributed between two residential towers, aptly named Bosco Verticale, in Milan, Italy. The multi-awarded development was designed not just to spur urban development in the business district of Porta Nuova but to encourage more green spaces in the city and contribute to better air quality. The logistical and construction challenges a project of this nature (pun intended) required the involvement of a battalion of botanists and horticulturists who were consulted on its feasibility, upkeep, and sustainability. 28-cm thick steel balconies and 1.3-meter parapets help keep the plants and trees rooted and sufficiently supported.
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Our next building hoards hoa up the green credentials like it’s going out of style. For Fo starters, Sydney’s One Central Park towers’ design incorp incorporates the world’s tallest vertical garden system on its façade, rising the full length of the East Tower’s This living wall is home to 250 species of 166-meter height. Th endemic Australian p plant life and was designed by the inventor of the green wall himself, him botanist Patrick Blanc. To ensure enough sunlight reaches reac the development’s landscaping below, an array of 220 fixed mirrors, called heliostats, cantilever Tower’s 28th floor, and reflect light captured from the taller East To by an assembly of motorized mo mirrors 100 meters below the cantilever, on the roof of the shorter West ca Tower. Come dusk, the heliostat array To doubles as a light installation crafted by do renowned light artist Yann Kersalé. Aside ren fro from having its own low-carbon natural gas power plant, something your condo probably po couldn’t co ouldn’t brag about, One Central Park is also als so home to the world’s largest membrane bio oreactor recycled water facility, which bioreactor he elps process the rainwater collected from helps va rious parts of the development. various
San Miguel Corporation Building
A modernist ziggurat occupying one of the last patches of green in the increasingly crowded business district of Ortigas Center, the San Miguel Building is a pioneering landmark that made the integration of greenery and eco-friendly features fundamental to its design. The building incorporated ample greenery on its terraces and had slanted windows that helped deflect unwanted heat and light. The landscaping was lush and replete with decade-old trees which remain to this day. Changes, like the addition of parking spaces, ate up some of the green spaces. Likewise, the desire of the original landscape architect to have soft plant barriers instead of walls to demarcate the lot has given way to present-day security needs. The architects were said to be heavily influenced by the forms of the Banaue Rice Terraces, something that also inspired p the architecture of its unluckyy neighbor, g the nowdemolished Benguet Center by Leandro V. Locsin Locsin.
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Oasia Hotel O
The Oasia O Hotel is a definite standout amid amidst the glass and metal-clad Singapore skyline. Incorporating a Singa striking red aluminum mesh façade striki interspersed with lush greenery, inters this 27-storey 2 hotel was designed to att attract biodiversity back into the city. Achieving a green-to-plot ratio of 1,100%, 1,1 it effectively atones for the e environmental sins and lack of green spaces of ten of its neighboring gree buildings. 21 species of creepers make build e their way up the tower’s rounded form, m, which is punctured by multi-storey sky whic y gardens. These outdoor public spaces garde were designed by the architects as oversized verandas, allowing cross overs venti ventilation to occur. Outdoor furniture queen and Renaissance woman quee Patricia Urquiola takes command of the Patri hote hotel’s tropical-inspired interiors.
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One Central Park
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The Babylon
No points for anyone who’s figured out this hotel’s namesake. Unlike the Hanging Gardens of Babylon though, The Babylon Hotel in Da Nang exists, but only if you can find it under the copious greenery that covers it. An L-shaped three-story structure covered with 5-by-15cm vertical concrete louvers, The Babylon makes use of its ‘green screen’ to provide privacy for its guests, sheathe the hotel from the main road, as well as help the structure blend in with its natural surroundings. With the abundance of plants deflecting direct sunlight and, thus, aiding in the cooling of the interiors, the architects go so far as to call the hotel’s façade, ‘heat resistant’.
Answers: 1. Stefan Boeri and Boeri Studio, 2. Mañosa Brothers and IP Santos, 3. Ateliers Jean Nouvel, 4. WOHA, 5. VTN Architects
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