<
https://www.positive.news/society/londons-new-urban-sustainable-greening-structure/>
"Outside the Chelsea College of Arts in London, UK, a 10-metre ‘urban greening’
structure has been unveiled: a showcase of using natural materials in
construction to support biodiversity.
The project, Vert, is designed to address challenges that are common to urban
areas, such as rising temperatures, heatwaves and declining biodiversity. Its
red oak timber frames, fitted with fabric nets or ‘sails’, can support more
than 20 species of climbing plants at once. Its designers say that it
encourages nature into the city and creates sheltered spaces to gather.
“The structure performs as a ‘greening machine’,” its designer, Stefan Diez,
told
Positive News, “while also making urban spaces more harmonious and
pleasant to live in from an aesthetic point of view. We wanted Vert to break
the monotony of our urban environment.”
Vert is a collaboration between Diez’ own design studio, Diez Office, the
American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), and urban greening specialist agency
OMCºC. Constructed from an engineered hardwood, red oak glue-laminated timber –
known in the industry as ‘glulam’ – the structure consists of a series of
timber triangles that hold suspended biodegradable nets. Despite red oak being
considered sustainable and constituting a hefty 18% of North American hardwood
forests, it is underutilised in Europe.
“Our aim is to create a beautiful place for London Design Festival: a cool,
shady, flowering, rustling, buzzing place where you can be close to nature, a
garden for insects and people in the middle of the city – somewhere that does
you good,” said Nicola Stattman, director and founder of OMCºC.
Vert fills a role typically performed by trees, acknowledges the team. But in
an era of acute climate change, climbing plants can be even more effective as
they grow many times faster, require less root space and can be ‘harvested’
annually to be turned into biochar, or recycled as raw material for the
generation of energy."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
