Garden City: Supergreen Buildings, Urban Skyscapes and the New Planted Space

This survey by Paris-based magazine editor and curator Yudina (Furnitecture) highlights some recent urban architecture that incorporates vegetation. Yudina believes humans must reestablish contact with nature and also points out the practical value of plants and trees as air purifiers, microclimate regulators, noise buffers, and bases for biodiversity. There are 74 schemes or completed projects presented in five sections. Each is given a brief description and several captioned color photographs. Most of the built architecture is residential or mixed-use, located in Europe or Asia. There are apartment complexes with balcony planters, houses with interior gardens, parks rising from industrial ruins, and office buildings with living walls or green roofs. Considerable research has gone into selecting appropriate plant species for each application. U.S. coverage includes New York's High Line and proposed Lowline parks. A number of entries are truly visionary: vertical farms, plant-generated air conditioning, biological façades hosting moss or microalgae, porous concrete walls that sustainably support roots, hanging garden dirigibles, and living building, and generate visual interest in the integration of building and lush vegetation.