What on earth is a vertical forest? It’s a forest that doesn’t grow on the earth. It grows in troughs placed on the balconies of residential buildings, hotels, and parks, making huge urban green spaces that don’t take up ground space, but rise skyward.  Today’s overcrowded, denatured, polluted cities are only waiting for them. They are the brainchild  of Italian architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri.

Boeri’s office, Stefano Boeri Architetti,  has already planted 27 vertical forests in cities around the world. Now Egypt has accepted plans for three seven-story forested buildings to be built in the New Administrative Capital, which is planned to replace Cairo as the capital city.  One of the three buildings will be a hotel; the other two will contain apartments. Planned together with Egyptian designer Shimaa Shalash and Italian landscape architect Laura Gatti, the buildings will house terraces containing 350 trees and 14,000 shrubs of more than 100 different species. 

What’s wonderful about vertical forests? A few hundred square meters of building can host thousands of square meters of trees and shrubs. Each  balcony may hold over a dozen trees from three to nine meters high, plus smaller plants. It’s calculated that one vertical forest holds the equivalent of two hectares of woodland and ground level undergrowth.

Apartment dwellers in forested buildings enjoy the human feeling of closeness to nature that until now was the privilege of those living in houses with yards. They can follow the seasons as their trees and bushes change colors, fade, and bloom again over the year. Greenery guarantees cleaner air  for residents and for the city as a whole, as plants filter ambient dust, absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. Plants also act as a shield against city noise. 

Vertical forests can help stabilize climate change. The shade cast over buildings walls and glass facades deflects sun glare and in summer, can reduce interior temperatures significantly. (As we noted, the need for shade in cities is becoming more and more urgent.) With comfortable indoor temperatures, residents won’t automatically switch the air conditioning on, thus reducing their, and the city’s, greenhouse emissions.  

An example in the works is the Nanjing Vertical Forest, the first vertical forest in China. It has two towers that contain 800 trees from 27 local species and 2,500 cascading plants and shrubs. It’s projected to absorb 18 tons of CO₂ per year and  produce 16,5 tons of oxygen. 

The natural habitats of birds and insects are fast disappearing to make room for urban construction. A building planted with a vertical forest actually attracts small wildlife, not only helping to preserve species but to preserve human varieties of food crops. As is known, many important crops depend on insect pollination, such as watermelons, stone fruit, nuts, and avocados. Bees or butterflies that visit flowering shrubs in a forested apartment balcony may well help fertilize food crops in fields or groves outside the city limits. 

How are vertical forests made and maintained? The plant troughs are placed on balconies. The photo below shows how. 

They are 1.10 meters high and up to 1.10 meters wide. The growing medium is a mix of soil, compost, and volcanic material that helps keep the mass light. Irrigation comes from groundwater pulled by a solar-powered pump system on the roof to all the troughs in the building. The plants used in this project are chosen according to the demands of the climate and installed in the troughs as saplings, slowly naturalizing to their new conditions. The troughs and plants are maintained under building regulations.

Ideally, cities would construct many such vertical forests. The Boeri site describes a future urban ecosystem where birds and insects thrive and help green the environment.

 “The creation of a number of vertical forests in the city can set up a network of environmental corridors which will give life to the main parks in the city, bringing together the green space of avenues and gardens and interweaving various spaces of spontaneous vegetation growth.”

All images via Stefano Boeri Architetti.

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Many ecologists identify with it, but there is something sad about Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, about a tree that gives to a young boy until its bitter end. A parable about how us humans treat nature? Could there be a better kind of giving tree in store?

An Israeli solar power integration company called Sologic envisions a different kind of tree for societies, the eTree. This concept “tree” solar energy sculpture they developed for social good is a hybrid station for the wayward urban traveller.

The eTree produces energy, cools and provides water for humans and pets, gives off Wifi signals, adds connectivity to a community, provides shade, offers a charging point, gives rest along the way and light at night.

Each one costs an estimated $100,000.

It’s not a revolution much beyond putting solar panels on a backpack, as far as I see it, but it’s a nice new way to envision how we should be interacting with and creating the public space.

While I would much rather take refuge under a real tree along my travels, and could really forego most of the options (like water for dog, charging station, connectivity to Wifi and interacting with my fellow man) I think that this prototype is a good step forward for how we design energy needs into smart cities of the future.

The developers imagine it across a whole pile of landscapes including along Israel’s National Trail.

Video of solar eTree

The eTree is now standing at the Ramat Hanadiv public gardens in Zichron Ya’acov and it is reported that versions are going up in Nice and China.

The company regards the eTree as a social innovation project. The installation includes charts about how much energy is being generated (not unlike the airport in Morocco we visited – we also met the company Naps Oy who integrated the solution in Finland!), and provides geographical information about the place.

Sologic was founded six years ago to provide solar energy to residential and commercial buildings.

The eTrees are a new project and were designed by Yoav Ben-Dov over 18 months. Each one is made with metal, and glass solar panels which produce 1.4 kW of energy per hour.

A concrete block holds the innards of the station in place hopefully long enough to keep hoodlums away.

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The La Spezia Arsenale 2062 competition was open to architects and designers around the world; they were asked to conceive a more peaceful reality for the host of destructive weapons and reintegrate the area to become a vibrant part of the city. La Spezia lies between Genoa and Pisa in the north.

Günay Erdem and Sunay Erdem took an unusual approach to their design – starting with playful hand drawn renders (versus computer-generated images.) These, which I love for being so human and natural, unsurprisingly have a softening affect on the master plan for the three peace islands.

Like water colors, the diagrams clearly outline the duo’s sweet vision for La Spezia, the diagrams evoke a sense of peacefulness – which is exactly what the brief called for. They trust that the locals will evolve away from the spirit of war and combat, the very antithesis of peace, in search of something more gentle.

Each of their islands has a different theme. Peace Island #1 is a place for socializing – an airy, pedestrian-friendly space for indoor and outdoor eats – that will resonate with vestiges of cultural and historical heritage – without the arsenal part! This is 2062 – remember? Anything is possible.

Related: Gorgeous green-roofed Ostim Park is an incubator for clean tech in Turkey

And perhaps that is what I like most about this design – the sense that anything is possible. My least favorite part is the second island, which is supposed to be for a zoo.

This is an honest thing that probably wouldn’t even transpire. There won’t be enough animals alive to go in zoos by 2062, unless – tragically – we won’t find them anywhere else thanks to climate change and rampant habitat destruction (I shudder at the thought.)

Here’s the important thing: the sentiment is there – the idea that animals are peace-loving and therefore being around them makes our life better comes with good intentions, but in my opinion, as an environmentalist and supporter of wild rights for all creatures, the zoo is not a great idea.

Peace Island #3, on the other hand, is going to be spectacular if this plan comes to pass! This is where a smorgasbord of flowers and other plants will be raised to create a densely vegetated, beautiful space in the heart of the city.

“The arsenal harbor gets a new lease of life after being transformed into three peace islands: The first island is a place of agoras, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, pubs and bookstores where people socialize, not make war,” “Günay Erdem tells World Architecture.

“The second island is a zoo island with animals representing peace. And the third island is a place where plants, the most representative of a peaceful life, grow.”

While other projects captured this essence as well, the judges favored Erdem’s design for its “compliance to program, original details and design creativity, long view and possibilities on the gulf landscape development, composition and look.”

:: Erdem Architects

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How many times have you seen a big old patch of lawn in the middle of Abu Dhabi and cringed?  Lush green grass does not belong in the desert, and trying to make it so wastes water. That’s why Thomas Heartherwick came up with the idea of covering up an existing park with a shaded canopy, and it looks like a cracked desert landscape.

Abu Dhabi approached Thomas Heatherwick, a well-known and well-respected architect currently based in London, to rethink an existing park in Abu Dhabi.

“The existing public space evoked the style of a european park by covering the desert with a blanket of grass,” writes the studio.

“However, counteracting evaporation caused by the intensity of the sun was requiring a significant amount of purified water to irrigate it, produced industrially from salty sea water using a costly and high energy consuming desalination process.”

In response, the studio came up with the idea of creating a continuous domed canopy lifted about 65 feet off the ground. From above they look like cracks in the earth created by the desert sun, but below, they shelter a rich, cool and well-ventilated urban oasis.

“The idea for the park’s design developed in response to these challenges and as a way of celebrating the beauty of the desert and its distinct surrounding landscape,” the studio writes. “Instead of denying the presence of the desert that the city is built on, we set ourselves the task of making a park out of the desert itself.”

Related: Abu Dhabi is phasing out cars and Siemens wants to help

In addition to improving quality of life for residents of Abu Dhabi, who have to contend with rapid urbanization, thepark provides facilities for both learning and community activities.

Once completed circa 2017, the park will have cafés, play spaces, a library, pools and streams, as well as date palms and community vegetable gardens. There will also be a mosque, an outdoor cinema and indoor and outdoor performance areas.

“By creating partial shade for the planting, the canopy aims to reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation and so will improve the park’s energy efficiency and sustainability,” writes the studio.

Shaded during the day, and illuminated at night, the new and improved Al Fayah Park is bound to be a huge hit among locals.

:: Dezeen

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Majlis are the boardrooms of the Arab world. A traditional ‘place of sitting’ often adorned with cushions on the floor, they are used to receive guests and exchange ideas. In the past, nomadic desert dwellers used special tents. Intercon takes a modern approach to this special meeting room with floating Majlis that are moved daily.

There’s a lot to talk about in Dubai. What to do about severe food and water scarcity, how to approach urban design, how to balance foreign investment with national pride and sustainable development.

Eager to understand how these issues be tackled without grandiose meetings that eat up an entire nation’s annual carbon budget in one week, the INDEX International Design Exhibition invited design professionals to “rethink the “Majlis” by giving it a contemporary, avant garde and green perspective.”

Intercon from Spain submitted a proposal for floating Majlis that are made with recycled, reused or upcycled materials. And they impressed the judges, because their proposal was shortlisted to be built.

Related: Luxury underwater Disqus Hotel close to anchoring in the Gulf

“This would be used as a place to discuss issues by groups of designers, decision makers and local inhabitants,” writes Leonardo Novelo from Intercon. “Evaluating both the impact of what has been done in the past and what is planned for the future, all on the actual site and from the vantage point that the sea has to offer.”

Made with a variety of materials common to the fishing industry (out of deference to life in the United Arab Emirates before oil), their floating meeting rooms would be fabricated out of everything  to including oil barrels and nylon nets.

First towed to the site by boats, the floating Majlis would be attached to mooring balls overnight. And the following day, the boats would transport them to another site, for more meetings, more meetings of the mind.

“Our floating majlis would contribute to spreading the awareness of our actions on a growing city.”

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Sellar Property Group will once again work with investors from Qatar to bring a new project to the south of Thames River. The 27 storey residential tower will not only give The Shard company, but it will bring London an additional 150 apartments, retail facilities and a roof garden.

The property developers will revamp Fielden House – a 1970s office building on London Bridge Street, a move that will culminate in an additional 160,000 square feet of residential and commercial space for the dense urban environment.

“It is intended that this new building will ‘float’ some 14m above the enlarged public realm space on London Bridge Street, opening up new access routes between the two levels, and providing views down to Guy’s hospital, Kings College Campus and the proposed Science Gallery for the first time,” Sellar told The Guardian.

“A new generous staircase and a multi-level retail space will link the two levels, creating a new through route from the public Plaza and bus station above, to St Thomas Street below, significantly improving pedestrian circulation and quality of the public realm,” the group added.

Like Abu Dhabi via Masdar City, Qatar is increasing its international investment presence. Although it remains to be seen whether or not the London towers are sound investments.

According to The Guardian, the Shard’s 10 apartments have yet to be scooped up, nor are we surprised. They’re supposedly priced at £50 million a piece.

:: The Guardian

Image of The Shard / Shutterstock

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Beirut residents are fed up: everywhere they look there are cranes and bulldozers turning their city into a giant concrete mess and even the smallest efforts to beautify the city are destroyed. This time they are saying no to a municipal plan to demolish the iconic Massad stairs.

Also known as the Mar Mikhael stairs in the district of the same name, the 73 steps mean something to local residents.

Not only are they a popular destination for tourists and artists, including the Dihazahyners who famously painted the steps in an array of beautiful colors and geometric shapes, but the stairs are also important for circulating human traffic.

Getting around as a pedestrian is becoming increasingly impossible as every inch of space is set aside for cars and buildings, so the stairs offer some respite from the noise and pollution that has engulfed city streets.

Now rumors are circulating that former Minister Mohammed Chatah is involved with groups who plan to demolish the stairs to either make way for a road way, which a local dentist told Al-Akhbar is not necessary, or an underground parking lot that would double apartment prices in the neighborhood, and the locals are livid.

(Related post: Beirut Green Project Maps Secret Eco Spots in the City)

Completely fed up with the incessant drive to build, a group that calls themselves Achrafieh Stairs has arranged a couple of sit-ins. One has already taken place, and another is scheduled for this Thursday at 4pm local time.

With 2,552 people following their Facebook page, it seems the group has a lot of support.

Siham Takayan, who owns a grocery store at the foot of the stairs, has watched the plans progress. First he said a representative from Ogero Telecom came in to remove a phone. And then some engineers stopped by to map out their plans.

“I stood up to them all alone,” Takayan told Al-Akhbar. “I sat in the middle of the stairs and prevented them from finishing their work until the neighborhood’s residents gathered and informed the workers and the engineers that they are unwelcome here.”

:: Al-Akhbar

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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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Frank Gehry, considered one of the world’s most important architects, said in a recent Foreign Policy interview that its “cheap” skyscrapers makes Dubai look like any other “cruddy city in the world.” We’ve been dissing these skyscrapers for a while, based on their shoddy eco credentials, but it’s so satisfying to hear from one of the world’s most renowned architects that so many of them are just junk.

While one can make the case that sustainable development in the context of a burgeoning global population must occur in dense urban environments, and nothing is more dense than shoving a small city into one soaring skyscraper, Dubai hasn’t attempted to achieve this with any kind of distinctive flair.

That seems to be Gehry’s main complaint.

“One would hope there would be more support from within these places for architecture that responds to the place and culture,” he said in the FP interview.

Instead, we have cookie cutter towers, one after the next looming over the Arabian/Persian Gulf, and many of them largely unoccupied. The economic put a halt to this activity, but a resurgence suggests that new developments are underfoot.

Thankfully, there is some good news to report. Dubai has recently become home to the world’s most sustainable building, The Change Initiative, as well as the world’s largest LEED Platinum government building.

Plus phase two of Sustainable City, a Dubai-styled eco-development, was recently awarded. So it’s not all bad.

But some of it is.

Gehry told FP that he was initially reluctant to get involved with the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project, largely because he didn’t know anything about Arab culture.

The Guggenheim, which has been pushed back to a 2017 completion date, is Gehry’s first Arab world project. He said that he doesn’t know of any other museum in the world that has the resources to “show off” art from around the globe in the way it will be showcased on Saadiyat Island upon its eventual completion.

He also addressed issues of worker’s rights, and we were thrilled to know that he hired a lawyer from Human Rights Watch to ensure that those construction Gehry’s work of art do so under the fairest possible conditions.

“These issues are important to me when I take a project,” he said.

For the record, there’s nothing particularly green about most of Gehry’s work, but at least you usually walk away from one of his works knowing exactly where it was built and by whom.

And a strong architectural identity has an uplifting impact on the community in which it appears. 

:: Arabian Business, Foreign Policy

Image of Dubai Skyline, Shutterstock

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Last September Lebanon banned public smoking, though nobody at the time could have guessed that it would actually come to pass.

But there has been an unintended negative consequence of the law designed to protect non-smokers from having to expose themselves to toxic secondhand smoke.

It turns out that smokers turned outside bars and restaurants with their cigarettes often don’t have a proper way to throw away their butts, so they up chucking them on the ground instead.

This is the origin of the soggy, non-biodegradeable stubs that eventually make their way into rivers and seas.

One of the founders, Akram Harb, shared the genesis of Urbin’s development with The Daily Star.

“I went to London to study for a year,” said Harb, “and it struck me how rare it is to see people throwing their cigarette butts on the floor, because there you have law enforcement. A friend of mine got fined 50 pounds [$75] for throwing a cigarette butt on the floor. It shocked me, because in Lebanon it doesn’t matter, it’s not a big deal.”

When he returned to Beirut, he and his partners Eddy Mansour and Joe Khalifeh started working on stylish prototypical solutions to the pollution problem that people could get behind. This was right around the time of the smoking ban’s onset.

Nine models and seven prototypes and Urbin is ready to hit the street. The first bin has been installed outside a trendy restaurant in Gemnayzeh, and the group intends to distribute a further 99 to establishments throughout the city.

The butt disposal units are sleek and stylish, but also melt into the surrounding grey urban environment. So it doesn’t interfere with the decor of any businesses that take them on.

In order to make the easy-to-clean units self-sustaining, a small plexiglass window holds advertisements. When the Urbin becomes more popular, the theory goes that advertisers will start paying big bucks to have their message broadcast among this crucial demographic of people.

It’s a brilliant concept and we hope it takes off.

:: The Daily Star

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