Design Features

A central vertical garden courtyard, created with landscape architects Atelier Le Balto, connects the five-storey brick base to the lightweight steel-framed greenhouse above, featuring a zigzagging roofline. The galvanized steel trellis supports plants across floors, with walkways, a staircase, and balcony offering city views. Exposed materials and high ceilings in the warehouse-like offices allow flexible future use, such as conversion to apartments.

Sustainability Systems

Warm air and CO2 from offices feed the greenhouse to boost plant growth, while rainwater and treated greywater irrigate the vertical garden and support research by the Fraunhofer UMSICHT institute on building-integrated agriculture. This circular system enhances energy efficiency in the post-industrial urban context near Altmarkt.

Location and Purpose

Located in Oberhausen’s historic center, the U-shaped building blends with brick surroundings on its northern facade while opening southward to reveal the garden structure. Funded partly by Germany’s National Urban Development Projects, it combines administration, research, and public space innovation.

Core Concept

A Naturhus integrates a traditional home inside a greenhouse envelope, creating a temperate microclimate similar to southern Europe even in cold northern settings like Sweden. Residents benefit from natural warmth, abundant light, and fresh produce grown in surrounding plant beds.

Key Benefits

• Energy Savings: Solar gain reduces heating needs, with some models achieving near-zero operational carbon.​
• Food Production: 30-80m² of growing space per dwelling supports organic fruits, vegetables, and herbs, minimizing food miles.
• Health and Lifestyle: Improved air quality, biophilic design, and communal areas promote activity and community living.

Real-World Examples

• Rosenlund Naturhus (Sweden): A private home south of Vadstena with an ecosystem for year-round gardening.​
• Uppgrenna Naturhus: Features plant beds and terraces overlooking Lake Vättern, mimicking a Mediterranean climate.​
• Findhorn Proposal (Scotland): Multi-dwelling greenhouse with rainwater harvesting, composting toilets, and greywater recycling for sustainability.​

Sustainability Features

These homes often include rainwater collection, wastewater purification via plant beds, and low-embodied-carbon materials. They avoid municipal sewers by creating closed-loop systems, ideal for off-grid or eco-communities.

Project Overview

This 10-story building houses 120 independent residences, reimagining urban apartments as spacious homes with private outdoor spaces nearly doubling the indoor area. Traditional hallways are transformed into a central atrium resembling streets and plazas, fostering community while preserving privacy. Developed by Vox Property Group and Studio Arca, it emphasizes biophilic design with over 800 trees and shrubs on terraces and common areas.

Hanging Gardens and Greenery

Each apartment includes climate-adapted plants on large terraces, creating hanging gardens that extend living spaces and improve air quality. Lush vegetation provides shade, biodiversity, and natural comfort, integrated with passive features like shading slabs for energy efficiency. This setup turns balconies into verdant “backyards” in a high-rise context.

Sustainability Features

The project earned BREEAM Excellent certification through natural light optimization, thermal insulation, and airtightness. Glazed facades blur indoor-outdoor boundaries, while greenery and slabs manage sunlight, rain, and snow for year-round comfort. Amenities like pools, gyms, cinemas, and concierge services complement the eco-focused living.

Current Status

Under construction as of recent updates (last noted 2022–2024), it represents a pioneering Romanian model for vertical living with nature.

Core Objectives

The project focused on three main areas: standardizing definitions of green economy and eco-innovation, mapping global actors and policies for performance assessment, and fostering knowledge transfer via events and an online platform. It emphasized win-win opportunities, like adopting technologies that boost sustainability without harming competitiveness.

Key Outcomes

A major deliverable was the Inno4SD network and platform (demo at new.inno4sd.net), launched in 2018 for ongoing collaboration across sectors on sustainable development goals. Work packages covered networking, policy agendas, best practices, and lessons integration, with a European focus but global reach.

Related Initiatives

Distinct from the newer EU GREEN Alliance (a university network for sustainability in education), green.eu targeted broader R&D uptake. No active updates post-2018 appear in records, but its framework influenced eco-innovation efforts like Greenovate! Europe.

Project Overview

Developed by Ironstate and designed by Dutch firm Concrete, Urby Staten Island features 900 rental apartments across two phases, plus 35,000 square feet of commercial space like shops and cafes. Located on the North Shore waterfront near the ferry, it reconnects residents to green spaces and the esplanade.

Urban Farm Features

The 5,000-square-foot urban farm, one of NYC’s largest and first in a residential building, grows over 50 crop varieties in a greenhouse with picnic areas and composting. It includes NYC’s first farmer-in-residence, supplying produce for a communal kitchen that hosts classes and tastings.

Community Amenities

Shared facilities foster neighborly bonds, including a rooftop apiary for honey production, a 5,100-square-foot fitness center, outdoor pool, fire pits, bike storage, and EV chargers. Apartments offer smart tech like keyless entry, in-unit laundry, and built-ins.

Sustainability Focus

Eco-elements like filtered water stations and green spaces align with Urby’s goal of holistic urban living, influencing later sites like Jersey City.

Botanical Engineering Process
Baubotanik, coined in 2007 at the University of Stuttgart, involves “plant addition” where young trees are interconnected in scaffolds, allowing roots, stems, and branches to merge into a unified organism. Initially supported by temporary metal frameworks and irrigation, the structure evolves as trees thicken and transport water/nutrients naturally, eventually making scaffolds obsolete. This creates resilient, living buildings that adapt seasonally and provide ecological benefits like air purification.

Key Features

• Dimensions: Nearly 9 meters tall, 8 square meters footprint, three levels with steel platforms for maintenance.
• Plants: Started with hundreds of 2-meter Salix alba willows; 2017 update used fewer Betula pubescens for better site adaptation.​
• Growth Phases: Shaping (forming connections), development (loaded growth under weather exposure), and self-sufficiency.​

Design Features

Oasia Hotel Downtown in Singapore features a facade covered in green vegetation.
The 190-meter tower stands out with its red aluminum mesh facade supporting 21 species of climbing plants, creating a dynamic “living” exterior that evolves with seasons and weather. Four sky terraces at levels 6, 12, 21, and 27—spanning communal spaces like pools, gyms, lawns, and lounges—are naturally ventilated via breezeway atria, reducing reliance on air conditioning. About 40% of the building’s volume is open-air green space, attracting birds, insects, and wildlife comparable to nearby parks.

Sustainability Impact

It achieves a green plot ratio (GPR) of 1,100%, providing over 10 times the greenery of the original site (which it replaced), with 54 plant species total across terraces and facades. Passive cooling, cross-ventilation, and porous design make it a prototype for tropical skyscrapers, earning it the title of Best Tall Building Worldwide in 2018 by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. A BioSEA study found 18 wildlife species thriving there.

Mixed-Use Function

Lower levels house 100 office units, while the 314-room hotel starts at level 12, blending work, leisure, and nature in a dense urban core. Unlike typical towers with centralized cores, its four corner cores maximize open floorplates for terraces, fostering communal and ecological harmony

Design Philosophy

The hospital maximizes natural views through a central sunken courtyard, floor-level landscapes, roof gardens, and full-height glazing overlooking Yishun Pond. This creates calming, rejuvenating spaces for patients and staff, with greenery from basement to rooftop fostering biodiversity—home to numerous bird, plant, butterfly, and aquatic species.

Therapeutic Benefits

Gardens aid recovery by reducing stress, providing privacy for family visits, and enhancing the microclimate (e.g., 2°C cooler in courtyards). Indigenous tropical plants ensure low maintenance, while adopted adjacent ponds with aquatic habitats expanded accessible green space by 400%, achieving a green plot ratio of 3.92.