Revitalization at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens

Vancouver's VanDusen Botanical Gardens has been offering its visitors refuge from increasing urbanization for over 30 years. Internationally renowned sustainable landscape designer Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, in combination with Architecture firm Busby Perkins + Will, have been selected to provide an innovative and inspirational facility to ensure its success well into the future.

overview

The building's five-petal roof will be partially covered with solar panels and green roofing.
The roof system will also collect and process rain water.

main entrance

elevation

Living Building Philosophy

At the heart of the Living Building concept is the belief that our society needs to move quickly to a state of balance between the natural and built environments – to define the highest measure of sustainability possible in the built environment based on current thinking.

The Living Building elements have been attained in many projects around the world – just not all together. It is hoped that VanDusen’s project will accomplish this.

Site
It is understood that the buildings would cause no negative impact. The idea is to reverse the trend of land degradation and invite nature’s functions into a healthy interface with people and buildings.

Energy
A living building relies on current solar income. The building’s energy needs would be supplied by on-site renewable energy on a net annual basis

Materials
Those used will be safe, healthy and responsible for all species.

Water

A Living Building is water independent. The plan is for 100 percent of VanDusen’s occupants’ water use to come from captured precipitation or reused water that is appropriately purified without the use of chemicals. Water would be cleaned using juncos, iris and carex grown in the garden.

Indoor Quality

Healthy for all people – the design will focus on the major conditions that must be present for a healthy interior environment to occur.

Beauty & Inspiration
A Living Building Tells a Story. As a society we are often surrounded by ugly and inhumane physical environments. This project will contain design features intended solely for human delight and the celebration of culture, spirit and place appropriate to the function of the building.

perspective main entrance

conceptual master plan for VanDusen Botanical Gardens

for more information please visit:
busby perkins + will
vandusen botanical gardens

Vertical Farming

While preparing my vegetable plot for the growing season ahead I began to realize I was running out of space. After a quick sketch and a materials list I was creating vertical structures to house my strawberries. It seemed logical....why go out when you can go up. I could quadruple my harvest using far less space. My idea of farming vertically is not new. The images below represent the vertical farming projects that have been conceptualized in recent years. Stay tuned for my strawberry tower concept drawing.

"Aberrant Agriculture" by Scott Johnson

Gordon Graff's Sky Farm proposed for downtown Toronto's theatre district.

Advantages to Farming Vertically

*Year-round crop production; 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, depending upon the crop (e.g., strawberries: 1 indoor acre = 30 outdoor acres) 

*No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests 

*All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers 

*VF virtually eliminates agricultural runoff by recycling black water 

*VF returns farmland to nature, restoring ecosystem functions and services 

*VF converts abandoned urban properties into food production centers 

*VF dramatically reduces fossil fuel use (no tractors, plows, shipping.)

"The living skyscraper: Farming the Urban Skyline" by Blake Kurasek









"VF-Type O" by Oliver Foster







Mithuns Architects' Vertical Farm Project for Seattle

What are your thoughts on cultivating our food in these types of environments?

For more information please visit The Vertical Farm Project

London Alpine

The Davies Alpine House
Location : The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London, England
Architect: Wilkinson Eyre
Environmental Consulting Engineer: atelier ten

During my studies in London I came across the Davies Alpine House, located on the site of my final project. While not a huge fan of alpine plants this technological and engineering feat had me rethinking the horticultural merit of high altitude vegetation.


Home to the Royal Botanic Garden's internationally important collection of rare and precious alpine plants, the Davies Alpine House provides very special conditions: maximum light levels, yet relatively low temperatures and constant air circulation to prevent the plants from overheating.








Environmental consultants, atelier ten, proposed a labyrinth system for the passive cooling of the structure. Cool night air is drawn in at low velocity along an 80-metre tunnel where it circulates with a simple interweaving latticework of 3.5N standard concrete blockwork. The thermal mass of the concrete cools the air further, and it is then recirculated through the alpine house above via a series of displacement tubes nestled among the plants.



the following words are from Kew / above photos courtesy of  AEingineer
"The Davies Alpine House combines sustainability, technology and accessibility in an architecture that is at once pragmatic and arresting, reflecting Kew's ongoing commitment to public education, accessibility and world-leading research." For more info please visit www.Kew.org

The photos below depict alpine plant ecology and their contribution to a healthier environment through extensive green roof systems.