GLOBAL GARDEN REPORT 2012 - Husqvarna Group

7: Using existing buildings
in new ways
Why, to an increasing extent, we are likely to
see existing buildings go green
70 000
square meters
amount of rooftop that
Paris hopes to turn into
green space over the next
eight years.
200
square meters
the size of the newly
inaugurated vertical green
wall in London.
26 GLOBAL GARDEN REPORT 2012
Necessity, it is said, is the mother of invention.
In the case of urban green spaces, this
certainly appears to be the case. Faced with
the necessity of balancing two, apparently
competing demands – denser cities and more
green areas – a growing number of cities are
now coming up with fresh new ideas for how
to solve this equation. The basis for many
such ideas centers on moving green areas into
places where, until now, we haven’t been used
to seeing them: on rooftops, facades, and even
indoors.
THE NEW COLOR OF ROOFTOPS
One simple yet ingenious way of combining
more densely distributed buildings with more
green spaces is to resolve the potential conflict
over land by simply putting the one on top of
the other. This is the core concept of green
roofs; a solution that has already begun to be
implemented in many places, and which we will
most likely see more of in the future.
The rooftop of Chicago’s city hall, which
is now home to almost 1900 square meters
of green space, is one high-profile example
of green roofs, but there are many more.
Just recently, Paris announced plans to add
seven acres of green roofs and garden to the
city, as a part of a wider initiative to improve
the city’s biodiversity. In the UK, similar
projects are currently on their way, with the
government focusing on encouraging a wider
use of landscaped roofs as a part of its plan for
increasing green space in urban areas. Similar
discussions are also taking place in Sydney and
Tokyo. Green rooftops appear to be taking off
for real.
VERTICAL GARDENS
Rooftops are not the only new places where
we can expect to find urban greenery in the
future. An idea that the French visionary
botanist Patrick Blanc (among others) has long
experimented with focuses on turning the
facades of city buildings into veritable vertical
gardens. Utilizing the key insight that plants are
not dependent on soil to prosper – just water
and nutrients – Blanc’s projects involve covering
facades with intricate irrigation systems so as to
make them a suitable home for plant life. He has