City oxygen or how you can turn a city into a jungle

Oxygen of the city or how to turn the city into a jungle

In the last issue, we considered the problem of landscaping and improvement of cities on free sites and in park areas, in this issue we will get acquainted with other methods of improving the ecological situation of cities.

Modern cities are taking over natural areas so quickly that environmentalists and architects have begun to seriously think about how to green up cities without occupying their useful areas. There was a way out – to turn the facades of houses into vertical gardens. In some cities, you can already find skyscrapers, the walls of which are covered with lush greenery. And this is done not only to decorate the surrounding space. Placing the jungle on the vertical walls and roofs of buildings in the literal sense of the word, improves the air quality and significantly increases energy efficiency and the microclimate inside the structures themselves.

TECHNOLOGY AND PRINCIPLES OF VERTICAL LANDSCAPING OF BUILDINGS

Vertical garden projects, which are becoming quite popular when creating ultramodern high-rises, are aimed at restoring green spaces that were destroyed during the construction of cities. In order to free up horizontal areas as much as possible and at the same time not lose vegetation, the attention of architects, landscape designers and environmentalists switched to the development of concepts that will help to compensate for the loss of natural resources by moving them to balconies, terraces, roofs. However, this type of landscaping requires the well-coordinated work of engineers who must calculate the additional load on the load-bearing walls, distribute special water supply systems for proper irrigation and organize the necessary drainage.

Botanists and biologists also face a difficult task in determining the species of plants that can survive in such unusual conditions for them. And do not forget that with the movement of vegetation to a height, insects, birds and a lot of different microorganisms will also go there. But despite the additional costs and difficulties in organizing ecosystems, such projects will be able to give hope for a breath of fresh air to those cities and districts where the creation of familiar parks is impossible. Plants planted on the walls of the building take on the main dust and gas shock coming from the streets crowded with cars, muffle strong noise and at the same time also produce oxygen. In addition, such buildings turn into an original decoration of megacities, whose gardens radically change their appearance during the year.

         Here are some examples of landscaping large cities using the technique of vertical gardening:

"VERTICAL FOREST" (BOSCO VERTICALE) IN MILAN (ITALY):

Unusual in its beauty and design idea, "Bosco Verticale" has become a real decoration of Milan. A unique residential complex designed by the Italian architect Stefano Boeri is located in the most prestigious area of Porta Nuova, in the center of Milan. It consists of two skyscrapers with a height of 80 and 112 m, respectively. These elite ultramodern skyscrapers have become notable for the fact that their facades are decorated with more than 800 trees, 11 thousand climbing perennials and about 5 thousand shrubs. Thanks to such abundant landscaping, the total area of various plant species amounted to about 20 thousand square meters of ordinary forest.

CAIXAFORUM MADRID CULTURAL CENTER IN MADRID (SPAIN):

Such an unusual project was developed by the architectural bureau Herzog and de Meuron, and the" living facade " was created by the French botanist and landscape designer Patrick Blanc. Now this building and part of the neighboring house are decorated with more than 15 thousand plants of 250 species.

A COMPLEX OF TWO VERTICAL FOREST SKYSCRAPERS IN NANJING (CHINA)

The construction of two skyscrapers is nearing completion at once, the facades of which are already slowly turning into a real jungle. The Chinese complex is equipped not only with special balconies and terraces, on which trees, shrubs, lianas and perennials are gradually planted, but also a whole system of swimming pools is being created. Several thousand different plant species will annually absorb more than 18 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and produce about 60 kg of pure oxygen daily.

This architectural solution would be quite effective in the issue of landscaping the territories of the city of Almaty, and would also improve the environmental situation, but it is not easy to implement it, since in this case there is a significant increase in the cost of the project, and the construction of such buildings itself. In addition to construction solutions, there are also moral and ethical solutions. It is necessary to develop ideas of careful attitude to objects of wildlife among the population.

Summing up all the above, we can make a final conclusion that the greening of urban areas is very important for the development of the city. Therefore, it is important to develop all spheres of society that can somehow affect the formation, development and preservation of green areas, which in turn can improve the living conditions of people in the urban environment.