Telok Blangah Hill Park’s Flying Infrastructure in the Sky

If you enjoyed our coverage of New York City’s High Line raised park, we think Telok Blangah Hill Park’s dizzying infrastructure will “elevate” you to an ever higher level. Located in Singapore, the park’s fly-over style “walkways” are reminiscent of those ancient rope bridges you see suspended over caverns in movies, giving you the very rare experience of viewing towering treetops from a monkey’s perspective. The pathways and suspension bridges are anything but rickety though. In fact, many of them are elegant works of art and architectural precision. But at 120 feet above the forest floor at their highest points, they aren’t for the faint of heart!

Telok Blangah is certainly breathtaking, but it also has the right kind of attitude when it comes to respecting nature. While some parks are constructed by chopping trees down to make room for open space and eliminating the animals that make their home there, Telok Blangah’s layout chose to preserve the natural landscape and instead build around it. Furthermore, the web-like paths consist of open structures which allow light and air to pass through. Some of the most awe-inspiring connection points are the undulating Henderson Waves (Singapore’s highest pedestrian bridge) and Alexandra Arch, which sparkles every night with a dazzling colour-changing LED lightshow.

Another amazing feature of this leafy treetop paradise is the fact that you can actually come face to face with some of the rich wildlife that lives there such as squirrels, sunbirds, doves, lizards and white-crested laughing thrushes. In fact, researchers frequent the nearby HSBC Treetop Walk to study the rain forest canopy which, if not for the unique aerial structures, would not be an easy place to access at all.

If all that nature makes you long for the bustling city, you don’t have to look very far to regain sight of the Singaporean metropolis. Many areas of the park treat visitors to panoramic views of the skyline, which is a vista that you don’t find in most nature preserves. With today’s architectural sentiment leaning towards mingling green spaces and cities rather than creating unnecessary divisions between them, Telok Blangah Hill Park is a real-life example of how successfully nature and architecture can combine.

GREEN OFFICE 2015: Workplace of the Future!!!

The Netherlands being the tiny country that it is, it’s no surprise that we tend to look to them for innovative design for dense urban spaces. RAU Architects developed their Green Office 2015 concept for a multi-functional office building that combines a spacious interior for comfortable working and ample green space for recreation. Designed for a site with existing infrastructure, this green office integrates sustainable transportation and is outfitted with photovoltaic cells and wind turbines to keep the office’s carbon footprint low.

For a productive working environment, the architects proposed interior and exterior features that would encourage a balanced working style. The interior of the office includes an adjustable ventilation system for comfort, as well as surface lighting that will provide more even illumination than traditional lighting. The outside of the building is designed with a verdant green roof and central courtyard — both to invite employees outdoors and to create opportunities for mingling.

To make this development eco-friendly, the architects approached energy efficiency in three ways: first, conservation through efficient insulation; second, re-use by converting kinetic energy into electrical energy (although the proposal does not give specific details about this process); third, clean energy production through the use of photovoltaic cells and wind turbines.

Green Treehouse Provides an Incredible Learning Playground

Stunning design and green architecture shouldn’t be reserved just for adults, as showcased by this gorgeous green treehouse built by the architects at Lord, Aeck & Sargent. Constructed as an extension to Camp Twin Lakes, a camp dedicated to kids with special needs, this treehouse is not only beautiful, fun and kid friendly, but green as well!

The treehouse, also known as the “Wild Side,” was built to be completely wheelchair accessible along either of the camp’s two lake-bound trails. The architects intended to create a space where kids could begin to connect with nature and learn about the different ecosystems that surround them. The treehouse is fairly ample in size and features a main space meant for environmental arts and crafts, an area for their drumming program, a storytelling and activity room, and some extra space for the staff and storage. There is even a 600-square foot covered deck with bench-to-ceiling screens that provides panoramic views of the pristine setting.
But that’s not all – amenities in the treehouse were specifically designed to be environmentally sensitive, giving the little campers the opportunity to learn about sustainability and saving water and energy. The Wild Side features a 1,700-square-foot green roof garden (which replaces the structure’s displaced forest floor below) in addition to a 1.4-kilowatt, eight-module photovoltaic solar array, two dry composting toilets, a copper rain chain to help divert rainwater that comes from a gutter over the door, and 3 dome skylights that take advantage of the forest’s amazing natural light. Camp Twin Lakes’ executive director Eric Robbins sees the treehouse as “a perfect educational tool for children and adults to learn about sustainability options.”

Students at the Savannah College of Art and Design contributed a bit of creativity to project as well. The school’s introductory sculpture class created totem pole-inspired sculptures to line the trail leading up to the Wild Side.
Camp Twin Lakes grew out of the community’s desire to provide camping facilities and programs catering to children with serious illness, disabilities or other challenges. Limited availability left programs contending with one another for space, and existing venues failed to provide the appropriate amenities for the campers with special needs. The completed project introduces a highly flexible campsite that can be customized to individual camp groups, and features climate controlled cabins, wheel chair-accessible recreation facilities and a state-of-the-art medical lodge where procedures such as dialysis and chemotherapy can be carried out.

Foating Green: A Grassy Bench

A lush lawn can be a wonderful thing to stretch out on. Unfortunately, the high-maintenance needs, which include frequent seeding and fertilizing, of grass can make it more of a pain than a joy, leaving would-be loungers disappointed. Fortunately, grassy seating can put back some of the fun. The idea of creating seating out of grass is no new concept, as you may find with the lawnge chairs or living lawn chaise. In this formulation, the Floating Green, by Ling Fan, is a stretch of lawn that appears to have rebelled against horizontality by springing from the ground, doing an elegant twist and then settling into a vertically folded position to offer passers-by a place to sit.

Fan writes: “Lawns are a visual representation of nature in an urban context; but they are anything but natural. The lawn is an engineered product genetically enhanced, mass produced in rolls, cut into uniform strips, transported in a truck, and installed on site by hard human labor.”
Fan seeks to integrate grass back into the urban landscape — and felt that creating street furniture would best express a fluidity with the surrounding, while giving the city a new and interesting sculptural form. While grass may not be the eco-friendliest plant, we all know it has a wonderfully soft feel perfect for kicking back, and it offers some carbon-capture qualities. In creating a sculptural grassy bench, Fan gives grass a fighting chance to gain a more positive relationship with city dwellers by allowing people to enjoy grass again in a fun and approachable way

Shipping Containers Transform Warehouse Into Office Space

After finding an affordable and convenient warehouse space in the industrial section of Santa Ana, Orange County, local printing company MVP decided to turn part of their premises into an office space. The warehouse wasn’t equipped to accommodate private offices, and the company felt that keeping the whole space climate-controlled would be wasteful, so they decided to group 10 20-foot shipping containers inside the warehouse to act as offices. The warehouse’s new industrial-chic workspaces proved to be an affordable option that continues to save the company on energy bills.

The bright red pods are grouped around a central courtyard with potted trees. They’ve cut out walls, added sliding glass doors, porthole windows, and individual A/C units. One of the containers was even turned into a kitchen (pictured above). Each office space was configured and furnished for a cost of about $3,000 to $4,000 each.
One benefit that has come from the new shipping container office space is a big reduction in the company’s electricity bills. “Our energy costs have dropped about three grand a month for heat and air conditioning,” said Keith Flanigan, owner of the company. “If everybody is not in the office, if they go to lunch, or they’re sick for a day, then the unit is turned off.” The new office pods put an end to the constant climate control skirmish. Now each office’s temperature can be individually controlled, and the savings are stacking up.
Although the warehouse offers limited natural daylight, we think the offices looks pretty hip to work in. Not to mention, the office pods are proving the feasibility and success of building green. As more attention is given to environmentally-sensitive materials, creative re-use of existing materials will prove to be beneficial to companies seeking to lighten their carbon footprint and reduce their expenses. We hope that other companies, like this one, will ask “what can we do differently with what we have, rather than going out and building a brand new building?”

Modern Swiss Prefab with a Tilting Wood Frame

Set against the rocky forms of the L’Ardévaz mountains, the Zufferey House both complements and contrasts its surroundings with a poised position that makes it appear like a rock teetering slightly off-balance or a box-y UFO about to take off. With a structural form that can certainly be considered an architectural novelty, the home — designed by Nunatak Sàrl Architectes — grabbed our attention when we noticed its incorporation of eco-friendly building techniques including a prefabricated wood frame and passive heating.

With a textured black exterior designed to resemble a stone, the interior proves to be cozy and contemporary. The home’s construction around a prefabricated wood frame is complemented with white walls and gray concrete flooring. The home’s concrete floor also provides heat for the home. The home also utilizes the principles of solar orientation as the home’s outdoor living spaces, including a terrace and garden are located on the east and south sides to shelter the residents from western winds and hot summer temperatures.

Butterfly Bamboo Homes Are Hope for Thai Orphans

There is nothing we love more than good design meeting up with a good cause. That’s why we love this student humanitarian design project on the Thai Burmese border: it combines beautifully designed (and super efficient) vernacular-inspired architecture with social responsibility in aiding the plight of Karen refugee orphans. Five students in Thailand are using architecture to make new lives for 24 orphans by providing them with homes to call their own.

Humanitarian design organization TYIN Tegnestue from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology conceived the project in response to a need for more dormitories for Karen refugee children in the village of Noh Bo on the Thai-Burmese border. The six woven bamboo huts, dubbed Soe Ker Tie, or The Butterfly Huts because of their “winged” appearance were designed with the children’s happiness and health in mind. As simple as these new dorms may seem, they provide something wonderful for a growing child - a space to call their own to learn, sleep and play in. This small luxury is one that so many of us take for granted but makes a huge difference in the development and happiness of these youngsters. Aside from giving 24 orphans brand new homes, the huts are pre-fabricated and assembled on site with sustainability in mind. Most of the bamboo used is harvested locally and woven in the same way that is traditional to the area. The special flapped roof of the Soe Ker Tie House is conducive to natural ventilation. Since the roof also collects rainwater, areas around the huts are more useful during the rainy season, and water can be stored during drier periods. Using foundations cast in repurposed tires, each hut is raised above ground level preventing issues that could arise due to moisture and decay.

Moss Carpet Grows in the Heart of Your Home

Among all the great green designs discovered at the 2009 Milan Furniture Fair, this beautiful biodegradable moss planter at the Tokyo Fiber Sensware exhibition definitely stood out. Japan-based flower artist Makoto Azuma collaborated with Unitika Ltd. to create an indoor glade, populating the planter with an assortment of mosses. The result is an exquisite organic carpet that runs through the exhibition, passing round the furniture and the poles and stunning visitors with its delightful presence.

Terramac® is an eco-friendly 3D knitted and spun fabric which serves as a receptacle for the planter’s roots, protects the seeds, and holds the moss together. Made from plant-derived polylactic acid fiber, “this material is decomposed (biodegraded) by microorganisms in compost or in soil after 10 years. Eventually only carbon dioxide and water remain”. As the planter biodegrades, CO2 is captured by the plants through the process of photosynthesis. The name Terramac® means “sons of the mother earth”.
The real beauty of this technology lies in the pairing of a plant-derived plastic with a plant (here the moss) to create an improved sustainable environment. Generally found growing on the sloping sides of embankments, moss can now be integrated within the heart of our homes and cities. We love when industry meets design to offer practical solutions that embellish our lives in a more sustainable way!

Singapore’s Energy Efficient Green Heart Center

The very heart of Singapore beats green, thanks to the new design for the National Heart Center by multinational firm Broadway Malyan. The abitious 35,299 square-meter building at the center of Singapore General Hospital’s Outram Campus redevelopment plan will hopefully score high green marks with its unique design that places people first. Recognizing that the medical world advances quite quickly, the design incorporates modular building methods to ensure that the structure of the building remains flexible and adaptable both internally and externally, easily and efficiently allowing for future growth.

Visitors to the National Heart Center will arrive via a convivial and naturally lit concourse and reception area. The first six floors of the building will contain facilities for day surgery, operating theaters, clinics, laboratories, radiology, and retail centers, while levels seven to ten will be reserved for non-patient areas, including medical records, research laboratories, staff training, and administrative offices.
Great floating green gardens, reminiscent of the medicinal courtyards of the Middle Ages, are meant to provide social connectivity and expedite the process of healing by offering patients healthy doses of natural light, ventilation, and views. The plants also act as carbon filters and help reduce the heat island effect, an important feature in a city that crams over 4 million into a 265-square mile area. The building is oriented around these communal internal spaces to encourage human interaction.
Demolition is expected to begin in September 2009, and the £73 million Heart Center is expected to be completed in Spring 2012.

Taiwan’s Beautiful Bioshell Center for Disease Control

Inspired by the elegant form of the Nautilus Shell, the Taiwan Center for Disease Control’s BioLab conceals a dangerous riddle within its outer skin. Usually only visible to the naked eye, the structure of the outer skin is laced with geometric patterns that represent the four symbols of the DNA sequence of the dangerous bacteria being studied within. If you’re not in awe of the structure itself, you may catch on to the message that Taiwan is trying to deliver: “Epidemic prevention is a war that we intend to win”.

A joint project by Manfredi Nicoletti and Arco Architects & Designers, the design has received an honorable mention in a competition to design a new center for disease control located in the Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park in Hsinchu County. The twin nautilus shell structures are surrounded by a rolling green-roofed complex that provides insulation while blending the project in with its surrounding environment. A large central atrium suffuses the interiors with light, and the biolab’s beautiful facade acts as a brise-soleil that helps to regulate interior climate while allowing light to filter through.
Although it is unclear whether or not anyone will truly see the pathogenic code hidden in the structure’s exterior, the nature of the bioshell goes to show that beauty lies in even the most destructive forms of nature.