Edouard Francois’ Immeuble qui Pousse, or Sprouting Building, at a first glance might remind you of a giant Chia Pet. With ingenious design, live plants blossom along the rock walls of this apartment building to create a living green facade.

Photo Courtesy Designboom.

Built in Montpellier, France, along the banks of the Lez River, this massive plant-covered rock structure blends into the landscape. The building was completed in 2000 and contains 64 apartments. Each apartment is oriented east or west along a central corridor, and the building gradually.

The building arcs gently with the surrounding landscape and has a large stone base. Rustic timber balconies are cantilevered out from the main structure and look like little tree houses. Each balcony has a flower stand for climbing plants, adding to the building’s overall vegetation. The concrete walls are covered in gabion baskets, which are typically used as retaining elements in river or highway engineering.

Photo Courtesy Urban Habitat, Univeristy of Virginia.

Francois prefabricated the gabion baskets on the site in 9-by-4.5-feet panels. To assemble each panel he began with a steel cage steel framework and studded with a double layer of frost-resistant pebbles and lava. The layer of lava would help with moisture control for the plants because of its porous nature. Next he added a layer of sand followed by a layer of seeds and soil. The sand prevented the plants from growing into and destroying the structure of the concrete. Finally, Francois set the ends of the steel cages in the concrete that formed the inner face of the panel, and reinforced the edges.

Stainless steel anchors tied the panels to the concrete structure behind them. Gabion walls are very green in their construction, but also create a well-insulated and well-ventilated building. A watering system was easily created between the joints of the panels to nurture the plants that would cover the facade.

Photo Courtesy Urban Habitat, University of Virginia.

Before Francois completed the building, the apartments sold out. The living facade of the building was unique and green, but did not sacrifice the comfort of the residents inside. Edouard Francois has continued to design green-covered buildings, and many other architects have picked up his innovations. Perhaps in the future all buildings will be living gardens, helping us create a more sustainable and beautiful planet.

Being a big nerd, I always thought libraries were one of the coolest places in the world. Now, thanks to some impressive new designs, other people are beginning to think so too. Rem Koolhaas’s Seattle Public Library is a giant ramp encased in glass. The Arabian Library in Scottsdale, Arizona, earned a LEED Silver rating and the 2008 Smart Environments Award, while the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, earned a much-coveted LEED Platinum rating.

But it is the proposed Bibliosphere at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany that tops them all. Combining a quirky modern form with green design, this “Death Star” library will act as a unique landmark for the city. (With its modern spherical shape and large size, the building has been said to jokingly resemble the Death Star battle ship from Star Wars). Architecture firm Greeen! designed Bibliosphere for an international competition (although the firm did not win—architectural firm KSP Engel and Zimmermann took that honor with a glass cube design).

Bibliosphere will act as a huge landmark for Essen, Germany. Photo Courtesy Inhabitat.

This giant sphere is both a new library and office building and was designed to create a place where the city of Essen and the University could come together. The façade of the sphere is oriented toward the city. The library’s reading rooms will use natural ventilation and lighting as well as solar protection films on the glass to save energy. The transparent nature of the library from the glass shell will provide views of the city and a healthy working environment.

The Bibliosphere will use renewable energy resources and is expected to cut energy consumption by more than 50 percent of what German standards require. Bibliosphere architects are aiming for gold certification from the German Sustainable Building Council, a member of the World Green Building Council.

This rendering shows how Bibliosphere will look at night. Photo Courtesy Inhabitat.

The architects at Greeen! have 10 years of environmental design experience. This European firm believes that environmental architecture needs to provide not only energy-saving benefits, but also needs to create comfortable human spaces. Greeen! designs, such as the Bibliosphere, are based on seven basic principles: interdisciplinarity; human-scale; spaces for living; sustainable architecture; ecological design; energy-solving building concepts; and reasonable solutions. With all these considerations in mind, it’s no wonder people are getting excited over the Bibliosphere.

Another giant has fallen. After two years of fruitless preservation attempts, a cultural icon, the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Japan, is going to be razed.

Designed by architect Kisho Kurakawa, the Tower was completed in 1972. It was intended to serve as a bachelor hotel for businessmen working in the affluent Tokyo neighborhood of Ginza. Kurakawa was a leader in the Metabolist movement of the 1960s and 1970s which envisioned cities formed of modular components designed for flexible and organic growth.

The Nakagin Capsule Tower in Japan was an architectural icon. Photo By damon.garrett/ Courtesy Flickr 

The Nakagin Capsule Tower was the world’s first example of capsule structural design built for actual use. Two towers rise 11 and 13 stories respectively, and are surrounded by an outer layer of prefabricated living units attached to the core by high tension bolts. The 140 capsules on the Tower were all pre-assembled in a factory, and although the capsules can be added or removed as necessary, none of them have been replaced since construction.

Capsules act as offices or small living spaces, and can be linked together to create a larger space. A one-person capsule is 4 meters by 2.5 meters and contains a built-in bed, bathroom, circular window, kitchen stove, refrigerator, TV and tape deck.

The Nakagin Capsule Tower has become emblematic of post-war Japan. So why is a building of such historic and cultural value going down?

Over time, and because of lack of care, the Nakagin Capsule Tower slowly sank into disrepair. To bring the building back to its original glory would take a full-scale restoration. Residents also began voicing concerns about the presence of asbestos.

On April 15, 2007, the management decided to raze and replace the Tower. They cited concerns about the Tower’s ability to withstand an earthquake. It didn’t hurt that the new 14-story building planned for the site would increase floor space by almost 60 percent, bringing in a lot more rent money.

Kurokawa protested, asking them to remove and replace the capsules with updated versions. Japan’s four major architectural organizations backed Kurokawa. The Tower was designed for flexibility, to morph and change with the times. Such an endeavor would also generate far less waste than building a new Tower. But the cost was simply too much.

With Kurokawa’s death in October of 2007, much of the advocacy for the Tower ended. All attempts to save the building in the last two years have come down to a simple property rights issue—if you want it, you pay for it. So at long last, demolition day draws near for this landmark building.

It is a tragedy that housing developments of historical and cultural significance are torn down simply because they are not considered sexy investments. But until our mentality changes, it’s sayonara to buildings like the Nakagin Capsule Tower.

At once a glorious success and also a failure, the Beddington Zero-Energy Development in London (known as BedZed) has helped transform ideas and pioneer the way for sustainable architecture.

Located in the London borough of Sutton, BedZed was designed to be a carbon-neutral community with sustainable housing on a multi-unit scale. BedZed would have ample green spaces and gardens, recycling facilities, water and energy-saving features, and a green transportation plan.

Beddington Zero-Energy Development in Sutton, England. Photo Courtesy Bioregional Development Group.

BedZed was designed by architect Bill Dunster for the partnership of the Bioregional Development group, the Peabody Trust, Arup, and Gardiner and Theobald. Built between 2000 and 2002, BedZed was short-listed in 2003 for the Stirling Prize, which is awarded to the building with the most significant impact on evolution in architecture in the past year.

One of the things that makes BedZed so unique is the magnitude of its plan. Instead of creating a sustainable home, BedZed sought to make a sustainable community comprised of 82 houses, 17 apartments and 1,405 square meters of workspace.

In order to achieve its goals of carbon neutrality, BedZed incorporated a plethora of green technologies and lifestyle changes. BedZed was built from natural, recycled and reclaimed materials (found locally whenever possible) to keep its carbon footprint low. Roof top gardens and standard gardens provide places for residents to grow their own food. Waste-water recycling and low-flow appliances help conserve water. Super-insulated homes retain heat, and a centralized Combined Heat and Power plant (CHP) reduces the energy needed to warm the homes. The houses embrace passive solar energy with south-facing terraces for maximum sunlight and heat gain while offices, which often use air conditioning to counter overheating, stay cooler on the north side of the building. The home ventilation system uses wind cowls to let in air while preventing heat loss in winter.

Lifestyle changes as well as architecture are also a part of BedZed’s environmental strategy. The community encourages people buy local, organic food or grow their own in the community gardens. Easy-to-use, home recycling bins cuts down on waste. BedZed promotes pedestrian walkways and cycling, and bus and train stops are within walking distance of the community. Carpools and a car club cut down on personal car use.

BedZed village square. Photo Courtesy Bioregional Development Group.

All in all, BedZed should have been the perfect green utopia. Unfortunately, many parts of the project failed when put into practical application. One of BedZed’s major hindrances is the expense of going green. The CHP and waste-water system were new technology and needed replacements and modifications over time—ones that the housing community simply could not afford. While CHP systems have worked elsewhere, at BedZed it was too unreliable, and could not supply the needs of the tenants. Other facets of the architecture, such as the wind cowls, were effective, yet more expensive than they were actually worth. BedZed was not able to meet its overly ambitious goals of being a carbon-neutral community.

Despite its faults, BedZed can hardly be considered an unmitigated failures. An evaluation by Bioregional in 2009 showed that the homes used 45 percent less electricity than the average home in Sutton. BedZed homes used 81 percent less gas to heat and less than half the water used by locals in Sutton. Eighty-six percent of BedZed residents said they bought organic food, while 39 percent even tried to grow some of their own food in the gardens.

While BedZed wasn’t the perfect green utopia, the companies involved in its creation have learned from their mistakes and have continued to move forward with new sustainable buildings and communities. We need more BedZeds as we continue to move forward toward a greener future.

Hollywood is going green. On June 6, filmmaker Chris Paine (“Who Killed the Electric Car”) had a big debut. However, this time it wasn’t a film he was showing, but his newly remodeled, sustainable house. Dubbed the Marrakesh House because of its Moroccan design, this home blends green design with artistic whimsy.

The atrium of the Marrakesh House. Photo Courtesy  Marrakesh House.   

The house was originally a 4,300 square foot home from the 1950s, but Paine has worked with a design team lead by project manager Shellie Collier, a LEED-accredited professional, to create a modern, green demonstration home. The idea for the Moroccan theme came from the positioning of the original structure around a central courtyard, mirroring the form of traditional riads. Throughout the house, Islamic design motifs blend with modern architecture to create a look that is truly unique. 

Paine and Collier used a variety of techniques to make the Marrakesh House as sustainable as possible. By reusing materials from the original house they were able to eliminate 75 percent of the waste that usually accompanies a remodel. Outside, the plants in the garden need little water. Many are native to southern California and the rest are edible. The retaining walls around the property were all made from construction waste materials claimed from other sites in the area. 

Chris Paine and the solar panels on the house. Photo Courtesy  Marrakesh House.  

Solar panels heat water, providing enough for four people. The photovoltaic solar system on the roof also provides about 60 percent of the house’s electricity. Inside, high-efficiency lighting such as CFL and LED bulbs in conjunction with dimmers and motion sensors cut down a startlingly large percentage of energy use. 

Marrakesh House also makes use of sustainable materials to lessen its impact on the environment. All of the wood in the house is Forest Stewardship Council-certified. The stone floors are not only natural but will last for thousands of years. All of the cabinets in the house are created from formaldehyde-free bamboo. 

Other touches such as low-flow toilets and faucets, no-VOC paint and the three electrical vehicle charging stations in the garage add to the sustainability of the house. But this house isn’t only about appearing high-tech. A collaboration of artists and designers have helped Paine prove that green living can be whimsically fun. The Marrakesh House doubles not only as a private residence, but also as an art, music and culture venue. 

A green home with decided personality, the Marrakesh House certainly is a new breed of sustainable building.

Sustainability doesn’t just have to mean building green anymore. The nonprofit group Architecture for Humanity is redefining sustainability to cover a building’s effect on the environment, the livelihood of its occupants, its impact on future generations and its vulnerability to disaster. This might seem like a lot to live up to, but Architecture for Humanity, a network of more than 40,000 professionals, is up to the challenge.

These men and women believe in “building a more sustainable future using the power of design.” Sharing ideas through networks such as the Open Architecture Network, they can create new and environmentally friendly solutions for many of their buildings. A building with a good design can alleviate poverty, provide access to water, sanitation, and power, act as a safe shelter for displaced populations or communities prone to disaster, create neutral spaces in post-conflict areas, and reduce the footprint of the built environment to mitigate rapid urbanization. For example, a community center can provide a safe gathering space, a place for employment opportunities and education, or act as a community library or daycare facility. However, it can serve none of these purposes if the space is not comfortable or if the costs of the center act as a financial drain on the community. A sustainable solution is not only cheaper in the long run, but can help teach the community safe and efficient building and maintenance techniques that can be applied to other shelters.

Architecture for Humanity’s clients include community groups, aid organizations, government agencies, foundations, and more. Founded in 1999 this group works tirelessly to benefit underserved communities across the world.

Here’s how the system works: an architect or architectural firm will design a project pro bono and submit it to Architecture for Humanity for review. Then Architecture for Humanity can support and manage all the rest of the aspects of the project through the design and construction process. However, before it will take on a project, the project proposal has to meet some high standards.

Project proposals must have:

• Strong partnerships with local community groups and design teams

• Demonstrate they can secure a site on which to build the project

• The proposed structures must benefit an underserved population and have strong community ties

• Local materials and labor used whenever possible

• Adherence to the LEED standards for sustainable architecture

• Innovative, sustainable, environmentally friendly design

Here are a couple of examples of current and past projects by Architecture for Humanity.

Kutamba AIDS Orphans School

Architect Matthew Miller designed this school for the village of Bikongozo, Uganda. The school will provide elementary education to children who have lost their parents to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It will serve the community by helping to counteract hunger, poverty and systemic depression.

The design uses renewable energy systems and local building materials and building methods. With the construction all performed on-site, Architecture for Humanity uses the construction process to educate the community on proper building and maintenance processes.

Yodakandyia Community Complex

The Yodakandyia Community Complex is a set of three buildings designed by architect Susie Platt working with UN Habitat in Sri Lanka. This area was affected by the December 2004 tsunami and the buildings are part of the resettlement program. The complex includes a community center, a library and medical center, and a preschool. The area surrounding the buildings is landscaped into a sports and recreation facility.

The complex presented a number of architectural challenges because of the hot and humid environment in an area where air conditioning is cost prohibitive. However, Platt was able to use a number of techniques to increase air circulation and naturally cool the buildings. The large roofs reduce heat and provide shade while the porous clay brick walls insulate the buildings. Strategic openings and open frame doors and windows allow for ventilation and seasonal wind reversals.

With these easy and green techniques, the complex is able to serve the community at a low cost.

Architecture for Humanity has taken on a huge responsibility, but its good works are not restricted to architects alone. Architecture for Humanity’s book, Design Like You Give a Damn reaches out to architect and layman alike to provide a history of sustainable designs and to showcase solutions to problems such as basic shelter, health care and education. Or you can get involved by volunteering, donating, or simply helping to spread the word. This is one future we ought to work to sustain.