Increase well-being

Green Roof of Aimé Césaire School Complex

Aimé Césaire Primary School: A Garden Home (Source: urbannext.net/aime-cesaire-primary-school)

In 2013, an experimental and educational project, conceived as a garden home for a school, was built at the heart of the green district known as ‘Duke’s Meadow’ on the Île de Nantes. The building’s roof was covered by 2,700 square meters of natural dunes.

The objective is to create a green roof, relying heavily on a phytosociological approach to plant colonization and high biodiversity, but also a site that is easy to manage.

The originality of its green roof results from a co-construction between architects and landscape designer. Its qualities are undeniable, and this...

Bézannes Joint Development Zone (Reed Bed Park), Storm-water Management Solution

Entrance of the Reed bed Park (Parc de la Roselière)
  • Rainwater management of a 172ha area in response to a waterproofing construction

This NbS is a construction ex nihilo of a landscaped park as alternative stormwater management solution to a traditionnal civil engineering management (tubes). It takes place in a 172ha area in the city of Bézannes (Reims Métropole). This project has been implemented in response to the waterproofing of this area (strong urbanisation level).

The project is caracterized by an artificial river leading to a permanent lagoon and a reed bed. Then a wetland manage the water...

Flood Retention Basins of Lura River, Como Province

Retention basin of Lura park (1)

  • River bank renaturation and stabilization through live staking and vegetated dikes

  • Riparian afforestation

  • Phytodepuration basins

  • ​Zero-energy flood retention system (no pumping needed)

The project consists of the implementation of two rolling basins connected by an open air ditch and a pond filled with ground water. The basins will be temporarely flooded by Lura river during intense rainy periods through natural inlet from the river bed,...

Green Façade Pilot Project, INPS, Genova

INPS (National Institute Social Insurance) Green Facade - Genoa neighborhood of Sestri Ponente

A vertical greening system installed on the facade of an office building built early in the last century and renovated in the 1980’s, owned by INPS (National Institute of Social Insurance) and located in the city center of the Genova neighborhood of Sestri Ponente.

INPS Green Facade is a pilot project coordinated by the University of Genoa (DAD) which aims to quantify the positive effects of the green envelopes in densely built urban environment. Monitoring activities are focused on the evaluation of the environmental benefits, both economic and social, in particular in densely...

Park Spoor Noord, Antwerp

park-spoor-noord4credit-antwerp-municipality.jpg

The release of an open public space with such dimensions in a densely-built city district offered a unique opportunity to restore the connection among the surrounding areas with a solid green lung.  The site was previously a brownfield land that needed remediation. (During the entire remediation operation, approximately 100,000 m³ of land was excavated) However, even the residents of the neighboring areas faced with initial skepticism the usefulness of a park in the specific location.

The idea was to have an economically viable park that would function as social space, a space that...

Operatie STEENBREEK

Operation Stone Break (Dutch wordplay) - Source : Operatie SteenBreek Fondation

Operatie Steenbreek  is a foundation that organizes awareness raising campaigns and offers assistance with regards to greening private gardens. Many gardens and streets in the Netherlands are covered with tiles that cannot absorp the rainwater from heavy rainfall.

The idea behind the initiative is to encourage citizens to remove the tiles and stones from their gardens/backyards and replace it with grass, plants and trees for better drainage and to increase the biodiversity.

Thanks to an app., citizens can be adviced and exchange plants with neighbours. Citizens can...

LEAFSKIN® Green Shady Structure

Green roof LEAFSKIN. Source: https://www.singulargreen.com/el-proyecto-urban-greenup-cumple-un-ano/

LEAFSKIN® is an ultralight green roof set up over pedestrian streets or squares, in order to create shadow areas in urban spaces.  

The tecnhology can also provide interesting implimentation like carring lighting system or  advertising on the bottum. 

Description of the NbS

The NbS is composed by three main elements:

  1. The facilities room. It is an unused newspaper kiosk, where there will be installed the irrigation system machines. An irrigation pipe is coming from this kiosk to the structures and a duct with the excess water returns back
    2. ...

Application of Eco:Actuary in the Thames catchment, UK: A series of tools to operationalise strategic planning and investment for Natural Flood Management. H2020 NAIAD Project.

EcoActuary: an open-access catastrophe model capable of assessing the impact of green infrastructure on local and downstream assets at risk of flood.

Using the widely used Policy Support System tools at www.policysupport.org as a basis, we built an insurance industry-relevant policy support system called Eco:Actuary. The objective of this project is to to co-develop and test the Eco:Actuary with NAIAD project partners & stakeholders in the fluvial non-tidal Thames as a DEMO catchment in the NAIAD project. 

EcoActuary is an open-access catastrophe model capable of assessing the impact of NbS on local and downstream assets at risk of flood.  It simulates a minimum of 1200 spatial...

Green Roof in refurbished industrial building (Office building 22@)

Green roof at Office building 22@ Source: picharchitects

Rehabilitation of an existing building by adding, among other rehabilitation measures, a semi-public green space on the roof with a positive influence on the health of users, positive effects on urban climate against the heat island effect and positive effect on water by it storages in the deck space. It also improves the energy efficiency of the building by the insulation provided by the layers of green cover.

Green roof in the Village Elves Hideaway

Green roof in the Village Elves Hideaway

Favoring of environmentally sustainable materials and solutions has been the main objective in the construction and services of Village Elves Hideaway. The newest ecological knowledge is integrated with mythology of Lapland in order to produce fascinating stories for guided tours. For this reason the green roof of Wise Elf´s house was built.

The construction was carried out as a part of larger project ‘From forest Baths to Green Roofs’ which aimed at new practices in nature-based services that enhance the wellbeing of travelers. 

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