The World Wide Web. – November 19, 2019

Now in our thirteenth year, Greenroofs.com Publisher Linda Velazquez announces the “2019 Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design.”

Which projects have captured the imagination, sparked construction, and furthered the cause of sustainability in our built environment for 2019?

The highly popular “Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design” Greenroofs.com series once again features outstanding living architecture projects and people for 2019 involved in creating green infrastructure to cool a warming planet.  Scouring the globe, Linda curates a fantastic array of highly greened buildings and landscapes, tracks trending market drivers, and highlights inspiring and important projects within 10 categories.

Linda inaugurated the Greenroofs.com’s 2019 Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design today via video at the Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2019.  Join her as she takes viewers on a fast paced, global whirlwind tour showcasing important, sustainably chic, and visionary examples of how many different types of stakeholders are greening the Earth through design.

Join us NOW for our 5th biennial Virtual Summit with FREE Registration!

Projects from Across 6 Continents

For 2019, Greenroofs.com has compiled amazing examples of architecture and design from across every continent except Antarctica.  As usual, it is always a difficult task to only choose a few specific projects to be showcased in each of the 10 categories representing the global greenroof and greenwall industry.

New this year are a few projects that don’t fit the description of neither greenroof nor greenwall, yet do portray lovely, sensitive, and timely examples of green infrastructure.

2019 Greenroofs.com “Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design”:

10) Client Specific ‘Boutique’ Greenroofs & Greenwalls

9) Inspiring Expo 2020: Sustainability’s the Star at the Dubai Pavilions

8) Living Dune Architecture for Disaster Resistance & a Healthy Dose of Surrealism

7) The Rise of Green Sports Venues

6) Parklike Landscapes Doubling as Greenroofs

5) A Roof-ful of Greening Helps the Medicine Go Down

4) The Greened Building as a Mountain

3) Accessible Greenroof Farming: Becoming Part of the Landscape

2) Apocalyptic Climate Change Inspires a Sustainability Blueprint

1) A New Hope to Cool Down a Warming Planet: Ribbons of Plants as Green Infrastructure

Images: Arup/Grimshaw, ©Patrick Bingham-Hall, ©Lodewijk Baljon Landscape ArchitectsTo get a glimpse into the 2019 Hot List, here is but one project featured in each category:

10) Client Specific ‘Boutique’ Greenroofs & Greenwalls

for those projects just too unique to fit into any other category

Image: Ilya Ivanov

Melting into the rolling hills: N.N. Residence
Designed by J.Mayer.H, the 5,300m² private home near Moscow stretches into the site and blurs the distinction of the built environment and the landscape. With cantilevered and curved transitions, the undulating greenroofs touch down at points for a soft landing to access the gardens at ground level.

9) Inspiring Expo 2020: Sustainability’s the Star at the Dubai Pavilions

wowing visitors & making a statement with living designs

Image: WOHA

About 25 million visitors are expected at the Expo 2020, with participation from 190 countries.  Entitled ‘Nature. Nurture. Future.’ the Singapore Pavilion is set to be an immersive 3-dimensional greenery experience anchored by three cones draped in vertical flora.  Showcasing the island nation’s urban innovations, the net-zero energy pavilion explores our journey towards livability and resilience and will truly be an oasis in the Arabian Desert.

8) Living Dune Architecture for Disaster Resistance & a Healthy Dose of Surrealism

building on the sand DOES take great engineering & imagination

Image: Arup/Grimshaw

Currently under construction on a 425-hectare site in a massive desert bowl in Muscat, the Oman Botanic Garden will celebrate and conserve the country’s rich botanic diversity.  Designed for LEED Platinum, two huge climate controlled biomes and a series of surrounding gardens will encompass eight native habitats with over 1,400 species of local plants from dry deserts to the rich monsoon cloud forests plus show traditionally cultivated crops and their uses.

7) The Rise of Green Sports Venues

work & play enveloped in greenness is good for the environment & the bottom line

Image: MAD Architects

Spanning approximately 700,000m², the Quzhou Sports Campus’ function is embedded within natural forms, creating an earth-art landscape.  Resembling a crater, the stadium sits into the ground in this modern Chinese city with thousands of years of history.  Surrounded by a dense forest of high-standing trees, people can move through the park drifting, climbing and traversing the undulating terrain.

6) Parklike Landscapes Doubling as Greenroofs

a park, a museum – no, it’s a living roof!

Image: DCIM100MEDIA, via Lodewijk Baljon Landscape Architects

The City Garden Kempkensberg Groningen in the Netherlands is part of a government office complex, and an important addition to outdoor space of the city as a public garden on top of an underground car park.  The sensitive design features 55,000 plants and 200 species, creates shelter from winds, and suits the ecology of the adjacent historical urban forest.

5) A Roof-ful of Greening Helps the Medicine Go Down

healthcare needs biophilic solutions as humans need nature, in a most delightful way

Image: Boston Medical Center

A rooftop farm was natural fit for Boston Medical Center, which has both a steadfast commitment to a green campus and integrative approach to patient health.  2,658 sf of growing space harvests about 25 different crops and two beehives with 80,000 – 100,000 bees in each hive during peak season pollinate 75% of the food.  The Boston Medical Center Rooftop Farm offers wonderful opportunities for educating patients and hosting events for volunteers and children of the community.

4) The Greened Building as a Mountain

the structure arises from the earth yearning to nurture

Image: ©Purnesh Dev Nikhanj

Like the stepped terrain of green mountains, glass walls, stepped stories and balconies of the Titan Integrity Campus / Mindspace in Bengaluru, India open out to a massive water body on the 6.5 acre site. The 3-floor structure has cascading terrace gardens at each level and every campus view is to nature – common areas are open and non-air conditioned.

3) Accessible Greenroof Farming: Becoming Part of the Landscape

growing one rooftop farm at a time builds food security & community

Image: MVRDV

The Tainan Xinhua Fruit & Vegetable Market in Taiwan will have an 80m² terraced accessible greenroof and become a public destination to experience food and appreciate views of the landscape.  The living rooftop farm will take on the appearance of the countryside’s rolling green hills and will have an exhibition center where regional agricultural products can be displayed.  The greenroof will be accessible from its eastern corner, where the terraces step down to ground level.

2) Apocalyptic Climate Change Inspires a Sustainability Blueprint

dire warnings of dire consequences can promote a healing design paradigm shift

Image: Trigema

TOP TOWER in Prague, Czech Republic is a proposed skyscraper using apocalyptic imagery from climate change projections.  Controversial and visually striking, the multi-use structure has a huge embedded shipwreck-like skeleton rising 450’ high – to be tallest building in the country.  A stark reminder of climate change – imagining a future where a shipwreck has collided with a building during an apocalypse caused by storms and rising sea levels.

1) A New Hope to Cool Down a Warming Planet: Ribbons of Plants as Green Infrastructure

earth doesn’t need humans to survive, but plants can save OUR species

Image: Stefano Boeri Architetti / MVSA Architects

Image: Wonderwoods

Wonderwoods in Utrecht, the Netherlands is an asymmetrical pair of towers by Stefano Boeri Architects and MVSA Architects for living, working and relaxing.  The towers of native plants are based on the relationship between nature and technology and will include 10,000 plants and 30 species to encourage animal biodiversity.  The project’s 1 hectare of forest vegetation is projected to produce approximately 41 tons of oxygen and absorb 5.4 tons of CO2 per year.  Wonderwoods’ 2.5 acres of plants will become a green oasis in the middle of the city, connecting humans to nature.  Currently under construction, the project is set to be completed in 2022.

Greenroofs.com has been bringing the latest projects in chic sustainability to the living architecture community since 2007

Watch the “2019 Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design” Video Now

Don’t miss seeing these projects and many more from international architects, landscape architects, and designers who are stretching our definition of living architecture and proving nature-based solutions for greening our planet are beautifully viable when embedding vegetation in and on our structures.

Join us NOW at our #VirtualSummit2019 with FREE Registration and Watch Linda’s 2019 Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design Video along with many others – but you must Register first!

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About Greenroofs.com:

Founded in 1999, Greenroofs.com is a dynamic interactive website, online media company, vibrant social network, and comprehensive resource Connecting the Planet + Living Architecture promoting People, Projects & Solutions. We are a collaborative platform and catalyst for our growing industry, and Earth’s connection to emerging trends of nature-based infrastructure via news, Projects & the Directory. We produce the international Greenroofs.com Projects Database and Directory, plus the biennial Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summits: Connecting the Planet + Living Architecture: People, Projects & Design since 2011.  Join us NOW!

For more information:

Aramis M. Velazquez
Greenroofs.com, LLC.
(888) 477-1326
aramis@greenroofs.com