Biophilic cities
“Density and sustainability must not be seen as contradictory, but as mutually dependent and synergistic" says Dense and Green Building Typologies researcher, Srilalitha Gopalakrishnan in Domus magazine.
Biophilia can be described as the innate love humans have for the natural world. The term "biophilia" was made popular by the biologist Edward Osborne Wilson as early as 1984 and in architecture today, biophilia is expressed through designing to ensure that the built environment and the natural world are intertwined and closely connected.
When talking about high-rise greenery in the garden city of Singapore, Srilalitha Gopalakrishnan, PhD researcher in the Dense and Green Building typologies project a the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) programme says, “density and sustainability must not be seen as contradictory, but as mutually dependent and synergistic."
Srilalitha further says that the benefits of innovative building types are being explored in Singapore that include "high-rise greenery in the form of public and common spaces, extensive terraces, sky bridges, vertical parks and roof gardens." These elements come together to create a dense and green cityscape. She postulates that connecting buildings to green corridors, parks, and nature reserves will create a matrix that will then form a larger ecosystem.
“Dense and green buildings provide important regulating services such as mitigating urban heat-island effects" postulates Srilalitha. She mentions case studies, which show that high-rise greenery has led to surface temperatures decreasing by up to 23.5 degrees Celsius.
Furthermore, Srilalitha says, "our research found that construction and maintenance costs of dense and green buildings were variable but generally affordable. They add between 1.5 and 4.5 per cent to the overall cost, with evident advantages for the environment and our psychological well-being.".
The path to building high-rise greenery is laden with difficulties such as the thorough consideration required to select and use the right construction methods. Srilalitha describes the various factors to be considered such as "building processes and elements including spatial planning, technical compliances related to safety, facade systems, structural frameworks as well as mechanical and electrical systems." She also adds that another challenge is convincing stakeholders to maintain the vertical vegetation.
"City in a garden" was published in the November issue of Domus magazine.