Veg.itecture: VIA Roofs

As the dialogue around green roofs shows that we've come a long way in vision and implementation. There seems a veritable cornucopia of projects and thinking on the subject. Read this interview with green roof plant expert Ed Snodgrass via Skygardens, and some more reinforcement of habitat potential for rooftops via Treehugger for some applied knowledge. Haven Kiers and Linda Velasquez offer some green roof hot ideas for 2009 - which are compelling but lacking in great detail... as a complement to my 2009 predictions as well.

As for projects, Treehugger swoops in with the obvious that green roofs are not new - stating that Europe has been vegetating rooftops for centuries... so yeah, there is a difference between these older models and the modern equivalents. Utterly shocking :)


:: image via Urban Greenery

They go on to point out a wonderful example from the 1950s by architect Richard Neutra for this sod-rooftopped, mid-century modern gem in Bozeman, Montana.




:: images via SpaceInvading

A Daily Dose of Architecture offers a variation on the theme, with earth-sheltered bunkers tucked into the hillsides or laced with subterranean tunnels, which has also been making quite a resurgence in our terror-prone times. A couple of cooler examples.


:: Federal Reserve Communications and Records Center - image via Archidose


:: Library of Congress - Packard Campus - image via Archidose

And the partially earth-sheltered, for instance this Mies van der Rohe Award finalist for this green roofed Multimodal Centre in Nice, France.


:: image via Bustler

Urban Greenery has been hard at work with some images of older green roof projects in North America, including these pioneering varieties:


:: LDS Convention Center, Salt Lake City - image credit American Hydrotech


:: Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Reseach Center, Connecticut - image credit American Hydrotech


:: Library Square Building, Vancouver, BC - image credit American Hydrotech

And another project that is reminiscent of Mountain Dwellings by BIG, which was recently awarded a Forum AID Award) for Architect... is an older project from Tadao Ando for the Awaji Yumebutai Conference Centre in Japan.




:: images via SpaceInvading

Finally, another shot or two of these infamous Mountain Dwellings a few weeks back I made the distinction, similar to Edouard Francois' Eden Bio building - the the reality left us feeling a bit, lacking. Follow-up, here's some other angles that show the brief emergence of green and a bit of redemption in this author's mind... still a ways to go, but heading in the right direction.




:: images via Arch Daily


:: image via Bustler