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vertical landscapes

Vertical landscapes will become an integral part of urban design in the near future. it is an embryonic concept, which I am exploring through this practice and my other company, BioTecture Ltd (see links page). Vertical landscapes offer exciting new potentials, solving many of the problems of the 21st centaury. As a global society, we are now more than 50% urbanised, and heading for 80% by 2050, by which time the global population is expected to reach 9.5bn. This will place huge pressures on the fabric of society and global systems in terms of resource and energy depletion, food production, fresh water supplies, transport infrastructure, urban ecology, urban heat island effect, global water use patterns, pollution, etc etc.

By introducing vertical landscapes, we are opening up an untapped dimension within the built environment, and can therefore introduce localised solutions to many of these issues. Green buildings are pleasant to look at, cool both building and street, dissipate sound, build urban ecologies, can clean building wastes and grow food, right where it's needed. This can lead to zero carbon footprint, a desirable and legal requirement by 2019.

These form a key ingredient to my philosophy of building biomembranes, living skins for buildings and can be designed into new build projects, but more importantly, can be retrofitted onto many existing ones, providing a method of major remodeling and upgrading of thermal performance to the external building face. This becomes particularly desirable with older high-rise buildings, which may be functionally sound, yet have limited ability to adapt to current needs. Adding external corridors and balconies as green space built in to improve building-flow, or user social space, are just two examples.

All these ideas are embryonic and need development; this needs to be driven by trial projects, which needs clients willing to experiment. A drive to be carbon-neutral is a good place to start, and vertical landscapes are undoubtedly a part of the solution.