Chic Sustainability Watch: Trends, Projects & People - Some Newly Started, Almost Done, & Finished

As you know if you’re keeping up with us here at the Sky Gardens Blog, Haven Kiers and I will be taking turns highlighting some important, unusual or just stunning greenroof and greenwall projects for our new bi-monthly reporting series, “Chic Sustainability Watch.”

For my inaugural turn, rather than focus on a specific typology of chic sustainability – like Haven did with her inaugural report a couple of weeks ago on Chickens and Urban Agriculture – I’m taking a more general approach and will report on a variety of cool projects that I’ve seen across online news channels and the blogosphere that have either just broken ground, are almost completed, or have been newly opened for business and enjoyment.

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR URBAN AGRICULTURE

Here’s one stunner that would have fit into our 2010 Top 10 List in the # 1 position – Tower Oases as Skyrise Urban Ag:

Image via: Treehugger

Swedish-American company Plantagon has just broken ground on the International Centre of Excellence for Urban Agriculture, the first of a series of massive skyscraper greenhouses in Linkoping, Sweden. The prototype building will be an urban farming living laboratory to test new growing technologies. This demo-plant of Swedish green technology relies on a transportation helix system where trays of plants are grown, irrigated, and harvested from the top of the “Plantscraper” on down to the basement. It’s great to see some of these visionary skyscrapers actually being built!

See Treehugger’s “Plantagon Breaks Ground On Their First Vertical Farm” by Lloyd Alter of February 14, 2012. See the Press Release.

Image via: Treehugger

TAIPEI PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE (TPAC)

Construction has started on the new monumental Taipei Performing Arts Center, or TPAC, in Taiwan. OMA, a Dutch firm, beat out 135 entries from 25 countries to design the flexible, 3-volume performing platform complex that will hold a total of 3,100 seats in its three theaters.

Image via: designboom; Image © OMA

The design invites people with and without tickets into the structure with the “outdoor public loop,” and you’ll also find living architecture here at various levels. In the section of the “Super Theatre” seen below you can see a couple of rooftops greened and the outdoor courtyards and promenades over the massive underground garage. The “Proscenium Playhouse” has similar features.

Image via: designboom; Image © OMA

See designboom’s “OMA: taipei performing arts center breaks ground” by andrea of February 17, 2012.

MIAMI SCIENCE MUSEUM

Downtown Miami will soon have another addition to its Museum Park – the Miami Science Museum (or MSM – not to be confused with the Miami Sound Machine!), designed by Grimshaw Architects. Aside from some very cool exhibits such as a 600,000 gallon aquarium facility and a full dome 3-D planetarium, MSM will embrace sustainable elements and smart design including a constructed wetland, high performance ventilation and maximized site design to capture Miami breezes.

Image via: Inhabitat; Image ©Grimshaw Architects

Touted as a living building, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science is a 250,000 square-foot complex that will have “a living core, vegetated roofs, and advanced systems that will allow it to physically and visibly change in response to weather, events, and the mood of the city.”

Image via: Inhabitat; Image ©Grimshaw Architects

See Inhabitat’s “Grimshaw Breaks Ground on the Miami Science Museum That Will Be Its Own Living Exhibit” by Bridgette Meinhold of February 27, 2012.

VIA VERDE

The affordable housing complex Via Verde by Jonathan Rose Companies and Dattner Architects in the South Bronx has been in the design world news for several years because of its social equity and sustainable design ethics. In fact, we included it in our 2009 Top 10 List in the #3 position, Healthy, Efficient & Affordable Green Housing.

“You can literally walk into the courtyard and spiral your way up all of these green roofs, starting with an amphitheater, which will have summertime performances. Evergreen trees on the third floor roof, dwarfed fruit trees, the entire fifth floor roof is all gardening beds for residents to grow their own fruits and vegetables. Then there’s a fitness center on the seventh floor with an extensive green roof outside.” ~ Ari Goldstein, Senior Project Manager, Jonathan Rose Companies

The project is finally close to completion – the 71 co-op unit and 151 rental multi-family residence will be ready for occupancy by the end of March. How awesome for Via Verde to be setting this new standard for affordable housing in New York City!

Image via: NY 1; click to see 2:00 video

See NY 1’s “New South Bronx Housing Complex Is Not ‘Green’ To Environmentally Friendly Ideas” by Jill Urban of February 26, 2012.

REFLECTIONS AT KEPPEL BAY

One amazing project that was just completed is Daniel Libeskind‘s residential complex Reflections at Keppel Bay in tropical Singapore – Aramis and I saw this when we visited there in November, 2010 and it was quite a sight to behold with its signature curved towers! If only it had finished a few months earlier, Haven and I would have included it in last year’s Top 10 List for 2011 in the #1 position – Skyscraping Sky Gardens on Roofs, Walls & Skybridges.

Image via: designboom

The 6-highrise tower, 2 million sf complex has 1,129 units, and you’ll find a roof garden at the top of each tower as well as in the interconnecting skybridges.

Image via: designboom

See designboom’s “daniel libeskind: reflections at keppel bay” by lauren of February 2, 2012.

VANDUSEN BOTANICAL GARDEN VISITOR CENTRE

Designed by Perkins+Will, the spectacular LEED Platinum VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre in Vancouver, B.C. has just opened to the public. Inspired by the shape of a native orchid, the multi-petal shaped greenroof was designed by Cornelia Oberlander‘s firm. Haven and I had the pleasure of meeting Cornelia at the 2010 CitiesAlive Conference and learning a bit about this wonderful project.

In fact, we loved it so much we included it in our Top 10 List for 2011 in the #5 position, Green + Blue Roofs = Integrated Water Management. Pending certification from the Living Building Challenge, the Visitor Centre expects to achieve net-zero energy on an annual basis through various ingenious systems. I’ll definitely visit this one the next time I’m in beautiful Vancouver, B.C.!