food for the future

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Stacking Green House in Vietnam

Where:

Saigon (city with the highest density of population in the world)

How:

- It is a typical tube house constructed on the plot 4,00 m wide and 20,00m deep.

- The front and back façades are entirely composed of layers of concrete planters cantilevered from two side walls.

- The distance between the planters and the height of the planters are adjusted according to the height of the plants, which varies from 25 cm to 40 cm.

- To water plants and for easy maintenance, an automatic irrigation pipes inside the planters has been developed. 

-  This tropical, unique and green house has been named “Stacking Green” because its façades filled with vigorous and vital greenery.

- The house structure is a RC frame structure widely used in Vietnam. 

- The partition walls are very few in order to keep interior fluency and view of green façades from every point of the house. 

- The green façade and roof top garden protect its inhabitants from the direct sunlight, street noise and pollution. 

- Furthermore, natural ventilation through the façades and 2 top-lights allow this house to save a big energy in a harsh climate in Saigon ( bioclimatic principles of traditional Vietnamese courtyard house).

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Urban remediation and civic infrastructure hub, São Paulo, Brazil

Global Holcim Awards Silver 2012

Type of project:	Building and civil engineering works
Start of construction:	June 2011
Authors:	Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner, Urban-Think Tank (U-TT), Brazil

This project for a multifunctional public building, Grotão - Fábrica de Música (music factory), is located in Grotão in the heart of the Paraisópolis favela of São Paulo. With more than 100,000 inhabitants, it is one of the largest informal communities worldwide. Like many favelas, and despite its unusually central location, the area is effectively separated from the formal city and its social and cultural infrastructure. In addition, due to the informal development and the area’s topographic and geological conditions, the site is characterized by increased erosion and dangerous mudslides. The project takes up both of these key challenges, building on intense community participation.

The challenging topography is retained and stabilized to prevent further erosion, creating a natural arena in a terraced public space and including a precinct for urban agriculture. Different low-tech features are proposed. A water management system is introduced to use rainwater on site and reuse grey-water. An integrative system for the active and passive use of ventilation, cooling and air conditioning makes use of both, the building and the amphitheater construction. In its vertical structure, the building itself offers various spaces for the music school, including a small concert hall, and also sports facilities, public spaces, and transport infrastructure. In the vicinity, residential buildings augment housing reserves and frame the arena.

Statement by project author, Hubert Klumpner

Project author Hubert Klumpner, Co-Director of Urban-Think Tank (U-TT) explains that the multifunctional community center in the Paraisópolis favela of São Paulo demonstrates a leading approach to ecological, social and economic sustainability that is interesting in terms of the interplay between each objective.

The structure itself addresses land slippage and flooding issues in a basin which fills with water during the wet season. The intervention is supported by the City of São Paulo to create an environmental center and cultural center focused upon perhaps one of Latin America’s greatest exports – music. 

The benefit of the building is far greater than its content alone. Since 2011, local legislation encourages sustainable construction approaches that make use of alternative energies and urban planning. This site will create a traffic hub in connection to the street and the new infrastructure, will act as a social hub, and is a tangible example of sustainable building techniques that incorporates photovoltaic electricity generation, water recycling, wind energy systems, and the use of recycled construction waste and debris within cast concrete to form the terraces and gardens of the new site.

This site is a window into the future of how the development of Grotão could proceed if sustainable construction approaches and technolgies are implemented.

A framework for sustainable construction

The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction is committed to the “triple bottom line” concept, which asserts that long-term and sustainable progress requires the balanced achievement of economic development, environmental performance and social advancement.

Based on this concept and to make sustainable construction easier to understand, evaluate and apply, the Holcim Foundation and its renowned partner universities have identified a set of five “target issues” for sustainable construction, which serve as a basis for the evaluation of submissions in the Holcim Awards competition and for assessing other projects in the context of Holcim Grants and publications on exemplary sustainable construction buildings.

Click on the links below for in-depth definitions of each “target issue”, including their practical application within exemplary buildings and Holcim Awards winning projects from different regions of the world:

Innovation and transferability – Progress
Ethical standards and social equity – People

Environmental quality and resource efficiency – Planet

Economic performance and compatibility – Prosperity

Contextual and aesthetic impact – Proficiency

 

 

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