Maybe you were raised on Teletubbies or fell in love with Hobbits? You too can have a curved, green-roof home as a backyard home for AirBNB or for your in-laws. Maybe it will be your first home and you want to make it a tiny home and green. Meet Wonderful Structures, a US company that supplies the framework upon which you can build a hobbit home. A build can be done in as little as 3 days, according to the company formerly known as Magic Homes.

Related: the Hobbit home set for demolition

Imagine a 400-square-foot tiny home with a low carbon footprint, nestled in the earth making it energy efficient to boot but with the convenience of a conventional house?

Vanlife made sense 10 years ago when global nomadism first took hold, but with a Starlink and an off grid parcel of land, true off-grid and efficient living is possible with Wonderful Structures.

The company manufactures prefabricated vaulted panels to be covered with soil so you can live in a Tolkienesque building you might be able to build yourself. Check your local building codes of course before you order.

Below are some photos of the construction process.

Can anyone build such a home anywhere? The company says: “Our technology features an innovative construction system designed to meet various standards for earthquake resistance, wind loads, and fire safety, making it eligible for approval worldwide.

“We recommend consulting your local building department to understand the specific requirements in your area. Additionally, standard construction permits will be needed for your project.”

::Wonderful Structures

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In urban jungles and in medical settings it’s refreshing to see food gardens popping up as green roofs. Hospitals are to treat ailing folks, yet the food served to patients is usually over processed and of low quality.

Boston Medical Center (or BMC) is an academic medical center that delivers a model of healthcare where innovative and equitable care empowers all patients to thrive. In June this year Recover Green Roofs celebrated the opening of Newmarket Farm at Boston Medical Center and its 7300 square foot rooftop farm with wheelchair accessible green space.

Related: Interview with Nature’s Path organic and regenerative food business

With raised beds, a pollinator garden, plus an outdoor classroom, the design process highlights a critical collaboration between BMC, Recover Green Roofs, and Higher Ground Farm. Marking Recover’s second design and installation on BMC’s campus following the initial Boston Medical Center Power Plant Farm, both sites collectively forge new community partners and enhance access to fresh foods.

A portion of each harvest is donated to several South End nonprofits, including Rosie’s Place.

In 2022, Mayor Wu established GrowBoston to promote urban agriculture and food production, deploying funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. GrowBoston provided $300,000 to support the expansion of Newmarket Farm. The farm features a unique green roof media blend developed by Ben Flanner of Brooklyn Grange and Chuck Duprey at Naturcycle. They used a locally manufactured version of the innovative blend developed for the Javits Center Expansion Rooftop & Farm, optimized for deep growing crops, long term performance and water management. The growing media depth ranges from 19-23 inches and large growing beds with a granular drainage base retain tens of thousands of gallons of rainwater throughout the year, reducing the need for irrigation.

Related: adding fungi to your green roof urban farms and gardens

A high-tech custom drip irrigation system supplements regional rainfall.

Managed by Sarah Hastings, BMC’s Rooftop Farmer, and Higher Ground Farm, the farm adds valuable green space to the Newmarket District, addresses food insecurity, and offers culturally relevant fresh foods. Cultivating hard-to-find produce, they grow aji dulce, Malabar spinach, Callaloo greens, bok choy, napa cabbage, cranberry beans, and Japanese turnips, among others.

Because of Newmarket Farm’s location overlooking the Boston skyline, it also optimizes sun-loving fruit, including tomatoes, and flowers that attract pollinators. A covered seating area provides education and outreach classes to students from Boston Public Schools, members of local community organizations, and staff & patients to get hands-on training on hyperlocal vegetable gardening. Plus, both BMC rooftop farms serve as a model for other hospitals, understanding that the local environment is intrinsic to supporting the overall health and wellbeing in our communities.

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A green roof is a beautiful idea for cities. They feel good, look good, they clean the air and reduce temperatures inside in the summer, increase them in the winter. They are good for the birds and the bees. But green roofs are cut off from the great web of information and possibilities found in soil attached to the earth. Scientists have a new idea: Mycorrhizal fungi.

In the US green roofs are typically planted with non-native plants in sterile soils, and their effectiveness declines over time. A Dartmouth-led research team set out to determine if managing green roof soil microbes could boost healthy urban soil development, a methodology that could be applied to support climate resilience in cities.

The team created an experimental green roof in Chicago to test how enhancing soil with native prairie microbes would change the soil microbial community over time. They were particularly interested in tracking the presence of beneficial mycorrhizal fungi.

Mycorrhizal fungi are well-known to live in roots and support plants in a symbiotic underground relationship, delivering nutrients and water to them in exchange for plant sugars. Mycorrhizal fungi could be particularly helpful to plants in green roofs that have to endure high temperatures, intense sun, and periodic flooding.

The researchers added soil rich with native mycorrhizal fungi obtained from a local restored prairie, referred to as “inoculum,” to the experimental green roof’s soil. They planted inoculated and untreated soil with native prairie plants and green roof succulents. Over two years, the team tracked changes in the mycorrhizal fungal community of the green roof. They also compared the green roof fungal species identified to those present in the inoculum and in the air.

Their findings demonstrate that active management of green roof mycorrhizal fungi accelerates soil development faster than if mycorrhizal fungal communities are left to passively reestablish on their own. Green roofs treated with mycorrhizal fungi foster a more diverse soil community that is more likely to support long-term green roof sustainability, according to the results published in New Phytologist.

“In this urban rooftop setting, we saw more diversity in the fungal communities of the inoculated soil,” said lead author Paul Metzler, soil ecology lab manager in the Department of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth. “The long-term and consistent effects of the inoculum were quite surprising, as it’s not necessarily something you would expect when working with such small microorganisms.”

Using a molecular technique called “DNA metabarcoding,” which enables the identification of multiple organisms in one sample, the researchers could identify fungi present in the green roof soils as well as potential sources of these fungi. Many fungi came from the inoculum while other species got there through some other vector such as wind.

The co-authors state that their study was different than most of its kind, as few studies track mycorrhizal community shifts over time post-inoculation and even fewer attempt to track the sources of species pools. The team also had a number of species in their green roof that likely arrived via unmeasured vectors such birds, insects, or even rats.

Still, the most diverse fungal communities were those that had been treated with the inoculum, illustrating how mycorrhizal fungi could be used to improve soil health in green roofs. The results suggest that active management of soil microbial communities is effective and worth the effort and resources in cities.

“Green roofs have a shelf life and they’re not always the self-sustaining ecosystems that we think they are,” says senior author Bala Chaudhary, an associate professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth. “They can be beneficial to urban areas but tend to lose their efficacy over time.”

While green roofs are marketed as “set it and forget it,” the co-authors explain that ecological thought should be incorporated into their design, construction, and maintenance to maximize the benefits and role that green roofs play in the climate resilience of urban areas.

“Our cities could be a window into the future,” says Chaudhary. “They are experiencing the impacts of climate change—warming temperatures and increased drought and flooding—in an intensified way, which make them a great microcosm to study some of these impacts below ground.”

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With more cities legislating for the use of green roofs, one Israeli-Canadian dream architect Moshe Safdie has taken the task to hand to inspire the world and show us how it’s done. While we’d take a real forest anyway, if you are lost in the urban jungle be mesmerized by Moshe Safdie Crystal skywalk, a 300 meter cylindrical promenade some 250 meters up in the sky.

Moshe Safdie on the Crystal:

No doubt Safdie faced these technical challenges with water, humidity, the need for hydroponics systems and fertigation equipment to keep the forest of plants alive in this real life urban jungle. We will see how architecturally sound the construction is as the years go by.

The Crystal is part of a large housing complex, hotels, retail space, as well as a subway, bus, and ferry terminals.

Moshe Safdie has always been a dreamer among architects and joins the ranks of other beloved Middle East architects such as the late Zaha Hadid from Iraq – the first female and first Muslim to win the Pritzker Prize.

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There’s plenty of cold weather still to come if you live in the Middle East, but the University of Haifa is preparing for the sun, with a new study that examines whether solar electricity panels and green roofs can work well in tandem. It is basically the question can 1+1=3?

The Kadas Green Roofs Ecology Research Center (which we’ve featured here) and which is headed by Prof. Leon Blaustein, researches the potential contributions of green roofs – roofs that are partially or completely covered with vegetation.

With ongoing urbanization, which reduces the variety of species found in cities, green roofs can increase biological diversity, and also provide insulation, bringing energy benefits to building owners who will save money on heating and cooling.

Green Roof researchers pouring coffee on it

Now the researchers, as part of a doctoral project by Bracha Schindler (not pictured above), are trying to add another “green” element to such roofs – solar panels that produce electricity. According to Kadas Center manager Dr. Shay Levy, the research hypothesis is that a green roof cools the panels, which will improve electricity production on hot days.

The panels, meanwhile, will provide shade and greater heterogeneity, making areas of the roof habitable by a wider variety of flora and fauna.

The above study is the precursor of a larger study being planned by the Kadas Center in conjunction with the Green Knesset project being implemented by the Knesset, where solar panels will be installed on green roof plots atop the Knesset after the shemitta (sabbatical) year is over in early Fall 2015.

Related: are coffee grounds good for green roofs?

The findings of the research project at University of Haifa will facilitate the larger research project on the rooftop of the Knesset, where the importance of irrigation on the PV-green roof synergy will also be assessed.

“We are always looking for synergy – combinations that make a total contribution that’s bigger than that of the individual components,” Dr. Levy said. “On the assumption that our hypotheses prove themselves, we hope to find a green synergy that will benefit the environment and perhaps further encourage the planting of green roofs and the installation of solar panels all over our cities.”

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Even the mayor came out to inaugurate Tel Aviv’s living laboratory and environmental sciences showcase on May 21, 2014.

The newly inaugurated building at Tel Aviv University practices what it preaches. As students occupy themselves with the challenges of our era, they have a real-time laboratory in which to conduct experiments, demonstrations, and research.

Working with Axelrod-Grobman Architects and Chen Architects, Geotectura carefully designed the interior to optimize natural lighting and ventilation, and to use just the right amount of renewable energy without generating waste. Under floor heating produces just enough warmth to keep people comfortable at their own level, but not enough to heat vacuous spaces.

A three-story EcoWall with a series of steel columns, pathways and terraces reaches down the building’s southern facade.

Related: Construction breaks ground on Israel’s Greenest Building

This wall – a visible highlight of the multifaceted project – has multiple functions, namely to protect the building from noise, pollution and excess sunlight, to generate thermo-solar energy through a sires of tubes in the wall that heat water (and also activates the building’s air-conditioning system independently of the national energy grid,) and to act as a real-time showcase of the groundbreaking work undertaken at PSES.

Small terraces or labs are built into the cage-like EcoWall, which we think is such a brilliant concept. This space is visible to everyone – students, researchers and even visitors, creating a spirit of collaboration and sharing and creating a sense of accomplishment and wonder that everyone can share.

A smart network of computer-controlled LED bulb surface on the eye-catching capsule that projects information and data to great distances. This allows passengers in cars or buses on Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv to access some of the information displayed.

During the design and construction phase reviews, PSES got high scores from the U.S. Green Building Council, and it seems the building is on track to achieve LEED Platinum – the absolute highest certification possible.

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Albeit better than neighboring Dubai’s skyline of what renowned architect Frank Gehry calls “cheap” and “anonymous” architecture, Abu Dhabi has grown into a dense urban environment with precious few green spaces.  The municipality aims to rectify that, however, starting with a 19,000 square foot green-roofed “urban oasis.”

The Abu Dhabi Municipality is actively seeking bids from the private sector to build a massive mixed-use building with a green roof for a particularly dense section of the city.

Slated for a block within the perimeter set by Hamdan and Khalifa Streets as well as Muroor Road and Street 10, according to The National, the new facility is designed to provide the 13,000 residents in the area a space for outdoor recreation and leisure facilities.

They’ll also be able to buy stuff and park their cars in a multi-level lot, which defeats the spirit of the place somewhat. Nonetheless, a large green roof will be a boon for the city for a variety of reasons.

In addition to absorbing carbon emissions, green roofs provide insulation and a habitat for birds, insects and other creatures.

Also, though Abu Dhabi doesn’t have much rain, green roofs control harmful rainwater runoff (in cities, when rainwater isn’t able to seep into the ground as it is supposed to, it collects all the muck on the streets as it charts its natural course to the nearest waterways.)

The Abu Dhabi municipality envisions this project as a two-phase development that will be built and owned by the winning bidder, and it is just the first in a series planned for the city.

With this new “urban oasis,” the city hopes to boost its image and improve quality of life for its residents, The National wrote.

It should also help to reduce traffic congestion, so the theory goes, as a result of all the extra parking spaces.

Rashed Al Omaira, who acts as an investment adviser to the city, told the paper that the project will “provide a wide range of facilities in a constrained and highly populated location.”

In so doing, residents won’t have to drive around too much. They will be able to take care of several chores and have fun in one central location while their cars are parked in the shade of a concrete lot.

:: The National

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A working class neighborhood currently populated by a series of drab concrete buildings, Kağıthane has undergone a dramatic transformation since the 1970s. Unplanned sprawl has resulted in unsafe, miserable communities that are regularly flooded when it rains, and it’s hard to find even a twig sprouting from the ground. But JDS Architects aims to change that with their Premier Campus Office.

Staged by a major real estate developer, Feryapi, the design competition called for a 100,000 square meter climate sensitive office complex in Kağıthane.

JDS Architects responded with a design that is wrapped in green from head to toe – so to speak. All of the offices spill out onto lush green terraces, which not only provide an important aesthetic service that improves the ambience, but also provides several environmental benefits as well.

Green roofs and terraces, such as those planned for the Premier Campus, provide natural insulation that will reduce temperatures, prevent storm water runoff and help to promote biodiversity – particularly in an urban environment that is badly lacking in this department.

The design proposes to mimic the rolling hills of Istanbul in both plan and section by staggering each level of the multi-storey complex; in so doing, JDS creates a series of lush stepped terraces that welcome workers as they exit their offices.

And we all know by now that nature integration is crucial to good health.

In order to provide even further climate control, JDS has also wrapped the offices in louvers that mitigate excess solar gain.

So, whilst we’re loathe to see more massive construction projects in any of the Middle East’s already overcrowded cities, if they have to happen, we’re pleased to see a trend that favors designs that incorporate vegetation.

That being said, the new Istanbul airport will sacrifice a total of 658,000 old trees. We’d like to think that sustainable design will outweigh its alternative, but only time will reveal that score.

:: Arch Daily

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Funded in part by the U.S. Forest Service, which has created all kinds of low impact natural wonderlands in parks across the United States, the boat is slated for completion by summer this year.

“The objective of our Bio Boat program is to introduce different aspects of environmental conservation to students interactively and in a natural setting,” HEPCA recently announced on their Facebook page.

“We want to create an atmosphere where the student can become excited about conservation and gain a true appreciation for the bio-diversity of the Red Sea.”

Both wind and solar-powered, the bio boat will have a minuscule environmental impact since it will generate all of its own clean, renewable energy.

It will also be topped by a green roof that is not only useful for insulating the interior during hot summers, but is also expected to provide a mini-habitat for the many birds that travel through the Rift Valley/Red Sea flyway.

“On-board the vessel, students will be able to explore the microscopic world around them in a hands-on setting,” HEPCA notes, in a fun, engaging learning environment.

“Dedicated personal [sic] will provide lively and interactive lessons, aided by science equipment and the latest multi-media tools.”

Based in the Samadai Preserve, the bio boat will also act as a platform from which to observe dolphins – in a way that is not disruptive to their health. HEPCA has worked very hard with divers and other groups to protect Red Sea dolphins from thoughtless tourists and locals.

They have also swiftly reported all new oil spills that emerge in the region, though they very clearly operate in a manner that does not alienate local government officials.

“The US Forest Service is also supporting HEPCA with capacity building for the educators, in order to ensure a quality learning experience,” the group reported on Facebook.

“They have been a great support to us and are committed to our vision of empowerment through education and engendering a culture of environmental stewardship amongst the youth.”

While science education is notoriously low in parts of North Africa and the Middle East, Green Prophet has observed a noticeable growth in science-based educational and tourism initiatives.

Dayma, for example, leads children on “biomimicry” tours that get them thinking about human applications for adaptations in nature – such as the ability of camels to withstand harsh desert environments without a vast water supply.

While the renders depict a conceptual design that could change as construction proceeds, we can’t wait to see the real thing. Stay tuned this summer!

Via HEPCA Facebook

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International design firm HOK released details and renders of the Istanbul International Financial Center, which is expected to create a powerhouse for the country’s major financial institutions, including state-owned and private banks and various financial governing bodies.

In addition to their role as overseers of the project’s masterplan, HOK will be constructing two high rise towers.

Slated for a 170 acre site that will include a total of 45m sq ft of office, residential, retail, hotel and parking space, the mixed-use complex will also feature urban green spaces – including planted roofs – that will leave some semblance of green to soak up the city’s growing emissions and tame the heat island affect.

Public transportation also plays an important part of the brief, as does sophisticated data and security management, but construction of this scale, which is already underway, will wreak havoc in the already-densely populated city.

Environmental activists in Turkey have been on high alert recently as the government has been pushing a new “nature law” that would permit opening of natural areas currently protected by law in the event of a poorly-defined public interest requirement.

Additionally, despite the country’s susceptibility to earthquakes, the government is still pushing nuclear energy, an issue that sparked yet another outcry by local residents.

In an effort to become an economic giant, the Turkish government has neglected to consider the environmental and social impact of unchecked growth, and the populace will suffer as a result.

The project is slated for completion in 2016.

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