A recent episode of Roman Mars fantastic architecture podcast 99% Invisible posed skepticism on the feasibility of planting trees on top of buildings, an argument I’ve seen before online. Contentions that excessive high-rise greenery can be unfeasible and vacuous in certain overly ambitious competition entries are definitely justifiable.
However, I believe that the efficacy of planting trees on skyscrapers should not be dismissed. There are many real world examples of architecture that incorporate trees and greenery to improve urban wellbeing and environmental sustainability.
The largely publicly accessible rooftop gardens at Kampung Admiralty by WOHA Architects demonstrates how a dense mixed-use development can benefit residents and surrounding neighbours with a lush, hilltop-like urban forest.
Completed in 1995, the ACROS building in Fukuoka by Emilio Ambasz is a 25 year old example of a building as a forest.
Parkroyal on Pickering by WOHA Architects, located next to an urban park, effectively doubles the green area of the park. This reduces the urban heat island effect while also sequestering carbon. Environmentalists suggest that we need to plant a billion trees in order to combat the effects of climate change. In a quickly urbanising world with rapidly reducing tree cover, planting trees on buildings might be our only option!
At the Oasia Downtown Hotel by WOHA Architects, there is 1000% more greenery provided than if the site had been left undeveloped. Urban biodiversity has been increased with over 50 plant species on the building. Just think of the potential, with 10 times as much greenery than if the site had been left empty. Imagine a dense urban future where we actually have more greenery sucking up greenhouse gases than when the world was undeveloped!
Many of these green-swathed buildings have had less tangible benefits on the environment, like where Oasia Downtown Hotel has become a habitat for a rare species of vulture!
Images by Jonathan Choe
