A 30-storey apartment building that will be covered in thousands of trees and plants has been given the go-ahead for construction in Brisbane, Australia. Work is due to begin in 2021.
The building, called Urban Forest, will be made primarily from ‘green’ concrete, a low-carbon version of the material that has much less Portland cement in it than standard concrete. To further the green credentials of the building, its units will be pre-fabricated to speed up construction time and reduce waste, while the timber will be FSC-certified and its bricks and stone will be recycled where possible, or locally sourced.
Urban Forest’s facade will host 1,000 trees and 20,000 plants, all of which are native to the country, in an attempt to make the structure – which will feature 392 homes and a rooftop garden – the world’s greenest residential building. There will also be a public park at ground level, and an information centre where visitors can learn about the building’s biodiversity.
“Concrete, steel and glass are very hard and solid industrial materials. Let’s call them dead materiality. We need to be embracing more living materiality, living architecture,” said Koichi Takada, the founder of Koichi Takada Architects.
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A 30-storey apartment building that will be covered in thousands of trees and plants has been given the go-ahead for construction in Brisbane, Australia. Work is due to begin in 2021.
The building, called Urban Forest, will be made primarily from ‘green’ concrete, a low-carbon version of the material that has much less Portland cement in it than standard concrete. To further the green credentials of the building, its units will be pre-fabricated to speed up construction time and reduce waste, while the timber will be FSC-certified and its bricks and stone will be recycled where possible, or locally sourced.
Urban Forest’s facade will host 1,000 trees and 20,000 plants, all of which are native to the country, in an attempt to make the structure – which will feature 392 homes and a rooftop garden – the world’s greenest residential building. There will also be a public park at ground level, and an information centre where visitors can learn about the building’s biodiversity.
“Concrete, steel and glass are very hard and solid industrial materials. Let’s call them dead materiality. We need to be embracing more living materiality, living architecture,” said Koichi Takada, the founder of Koichi Takada Architects.