URBANFLORA

The beautiful Le Jardin Plume in Normandy

The Quibels bought these seven acres of flat, sheep-grazed orchard in 1996. After several months, the master plan for the garden was ready it had to be a garden in the French formal style but with a planting in a modern mix of grasses and perennials with a natural wild look. Patrick & Sylvie prefer…

Twin Trees Pavilion, mixing artificial and natural atmosphere.

Shanghai based Atelier Archmixing has recently changed a former pigpen into a cozy pavilion in a small traditional town located in Yangtze Delta area( China.) It is a supplement for two traditional style residences, providing an extra place for meeting and recreation, just nearby a hill planted with orange trees. Two big trees, a 20-year-old…

Jones Road Garden, Naturalistic Design by Adam Woodruff

‘Jones Road Garden’ in Girard, Illinois, is a wonderful example in wich way Adam Woodruff brings his customers into contact with nature and the greater landscape. In an earlier article (TuinenStruinen) on one of his designs: The Gardens at the Bank of Springfield was discribed how Adam Woodruff is inspired by traveling to a lot…

Stone Edge Farm by Andrea Cochran

The predominantly flat, open site called for bold gestures to balance the strong forms of the architects studio. A trilogy of structures – observatory – spa – stone pyramid are grounded by linear forms. The pyramid is made out of re-used stone from the old garden. Ancient olive trees take care of natural structure and…

Park Royal Tower opens in Singapore

The Park Royal on Pickering occupies a long and narrow plot in the west part of city’s central business district and connects the historic shophouse district with the Singapore River and park.

Urban Air turns Billboards into “Living Cloud Forest”.

Los Angeles based artist Stephen Glassman has this great idea to turn old Billboards into lushy gardens. The artist wants to create living cloud forests and by doing this creating some breathing space for the car-drivers . For URBANFLORA only one thing is important ” more green in the city” and this is another example…

Biowonder-New Green Bank in Calcutta.

“Men first make buildings and then the buildings make men” say this project’s designers. “We are an integral part of nature, every rhythm or natural phenomenon around us brings biochemical changes in our body. For example, the changes in the sunlight around us influence the ebbing and flow of hormone in our body. It controls…

New- Solar Powered – Sustainsable Base for NASA.

NASA has built a new facility at the entrance of the Amess Research Center in Silicon Valley . The new sustainable base is completely solar-powered .

New Linear Park at Embassy Gardens, London.

London-City just presented their plans for a new City-park , the new “Linear Park” winds it’s way through a new housing development project . This project is taken place right now and goes from Vauxhall to New Battersea Power-station. The site is currently occupied by some old industrial depots and New Covent Garden , the…

The Trellis “Garden House” .

Looking at this design you probably recognize the wooden Trellis as the one we use in gardens to assist Climbing Plants. And indeed it is the idea behind these trellis-walls. Nature can go wild against these walls and make these walls into great vertical-gardens. The relatively simple crisscrossing wooden trellises span from ground to…

Sublime Japanese Roof-Garden ; Secret Garden.

The Roof-gardens in this project are connecting a series of independent buildings. The buildings have various functions used by family-members.The roofs provide insulation, clean air and even edible produce but are also linked together by a system of bridges and stairs. Sadly (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), this critical design choice would not…

London Rolling Bridge .

Heatherwick Studio was commissioned to design a pedestrian bridge to span an inlet of the Grand Union Canal at Paddington Basin, London, and provide an access route for workers and residents. Crucially, the bridge needed to open to allow access for the boat moored in the inlet. The aim was to make the movement the…

Floating on a Forest.

Tree-houses are a dream of every boy but for some boys this dream becomes reality. This Tree-house floats above the tree-tops is made of metal and wood. Set on a series of thin metal stilts (with tension rods to prevent torque), the design by HSWSG is a Japanese weekend getaway both apart from and…

Living in a Jungle at Home.

The “Elok House” is a real Plant-home , it’s not just an interior-plant that makes the trick but in this home a complete jungle or forest makes the difference. With more plants and trees than you can shake a stick at, each room has a combination of green growth that goes beyond simple decorative…

Four Roof-gardens and Forty Birch-trees ; The Muse in London.

Inspired by the German Passivhaus approach and technical methods developed by physicist Wolfgang Feist, Bere Architects’ own director Justin Bere started building his own home back in 2002. “The Muse” is a Energy Efficient Solar-powered home located in Newington Green in North London. The home is topped with 4 roof-gardens,40 trees and two meadows. If…

The Travessa Vertical Garden Home.

This house build in 2012 has great plant-features , the first great green wall is the front of this Residential Single Family House. The green walls are perfect for the climate-control of the house, in the summer they absorb sunlight and keep the house cool.The spaces in this Box-house are all connected by one staircase…

Scuba-Diving in Radisson Blu Hotel Berlin.

Berlin is not the first destination when looking for a place to Scuba-dive . The Radisson Blu Hotel in Berlin offers a great new facility for Deep Sea Divers. The hotel lobby has an 82-feet Aquadom with the guest-elevators running trough the Sea-world a great way to meet some divers. All the 427 hotel rooms…

Portal of Awareness in Mexico-city.

One of the major roads in Mexico-city ( Paseo de la Reforma ) is chosen by Coffee-giant Nestle for it’s Portal of Awareness-project. Nestle commissioned Architect Rojkind Arquitectos to make a design , a dynamic urban installation comprised of no fewer than 1,497 metal coffee cups. The main structure consist of 41 arches connected te each…

Japanese Botanical Garden illuminated with millions of LED-Lights.

The Nabana no Sato Botanical Garden in Japan is ready for Christmas , millions of LED-Lights in the Botanical Garden make a fantastical Winter Wonderland. The Light-show is much appreciated and by the public chosen as ” Best Light Show of the Country” . Green,Blue and Pink LED-Lights are representing the changing morning Light. Violet…

Blue Ridge House ,Virginia has Geo-thermal Energy.

It’s not only the superb location , the foot of Blue Ridge mountain , but also the energy-source of the Blue Ridge House what makes this house so special. The house’s heating and cooling from geo-thermal energy , 10 geo-thermal wells make this possible The location of the Blue Ridge House is a 200…

New Klyde Warren Park Built over I-35 Freeway in Dallas, Texas.

Dallas residents have a new public park opened last saturday , the Klyde warren park. The park adds the much needed green to this city. The park is built on a cap over the I-35 freeway and it reconnects downtown Dallas with the city’s Uptown neighborhood, healing a small portion of the gash created by the…

Mediterranean Interior Garden Wageningen, The Netherlands.

The office building of Alterra in Wageningen,The Netherlands has two gardens ( 2000 m2 ) inside the building. The garden help with the buildings climate-control and create a better environment to the people working in this building. All the rooms are connected to the garden for optimal benefits. The design for the interior gardens is…

The Edinburgh Gardens Rain Garden in Melbourne.

Melbourne has experienced some years of drought and this project was to replace the existing need for potable water being used to irrigate the parks and gardens.The Edinburgh Gardens Rain Garden designed by GHD pty Ltd is to provide a sustainable source of treated stormwater for the parks mature trees and sporting fields in a…

Nathan Phillips Square Podium Toronto Largest Roof Garden of Canada.

The original design for Nathan Phillips Square podium in Toronto,Canada is from Finnish Architect Viljo Revell as a public ceremonial space made accessible by a giant sculptural ramp.This space proved to be a grim, paved void, remaining closed to the public for over a decade. Today, this heritage site is the largest publicly accessible green roof…

Public Park on top of Logrono Railway Station

Logrono’s ( Spain ) Railway Station needed to be upgraded for new High-speed Rail. So plans were made for the whole site, five new residential towers are build, the renovated railway-station and a new public park. The railway-station is topped with grasses and other vegetation and serves as public park. Four towers pop up from…

Sustainable Garden for Falco Art-collector.

The owner of this house , situated in Falco United States , a high-end contemporary art-collector , desired a contemporary sculpture/residence to both himself and his art-collection . The owner is raised in NorthDakota and wished for the design to reflect the prairie archetypes . The design for the garden is low-maintenance and planted with…

Going Small in Texas.

Texas architect Jim Poteet helped Stacey Hill, who lives in a San Antonio artists’ community, wrangle an empty steel shipping container into a playhouse, a garden retreat and a guesthouse for visiting artists. The container measures a narrow and long 8 by 40 feet; Hill asked that a portion of the square footage be…