'Going green' is the new edict of developers when seeking to enhance life in urban settings. Now, architects are bringing on pivotal landscape designers to fine-tune residential and mixed-use condos.
In conceiving New York's 53W53 tower, Pritzker Architecture Prize winning architect Jean Nouvel has teamed up with the Paris Ritz architect Thierry Despont and the landscape designer Patrick Blanc, the modern developer of the 'vertical garden'. The condo development, to be perched directly above the city's Museum of Modern Art, is set to open in 2018.
'For my vertical gardens, which will be 18 ft in height and surround the swimming pool, I'm using more than 100 species, many of them sourced from the tropical rain forest,' says Blanc. 'They will give a sense of poetry to the space.'
Creative schemes like these are aren't restricted to the United States and Europe, either. 'Right now, Jean and I are working on a huge project in Kuala Lumpur,' says Blanc, speaking from Malaysia. At the same time, he is also creating vertical gardens for developments in Singapore, Riyadh and Kuwait.
Down in Chelsea and directly opposite the High Line, David Kelly of Rees Roberts + Partners recently completed a $1 million garden for the Kohn Pedersen Fox condo tower at 500 West 21st Street, which spans the length of the building and the installation of which took an entire two years to complete. Composed of multiple layers of local trees, shrubs and flowers, Kelly's landscape design includes fully-grown 45 ft high honey locust trees and white birches.
Just why is this trend gaining traction so fast? Blanc explains: 'With increasing urbanisation globally, residents are seeking the sanctuary of nature and a direct connection between indoor and outdoor space.'
'For my vertical gardens, which will be 18 ft in height and surround the swimming pool, I'm using more than 100 species, many of them sourced from the tropical rain forest,' says Blanc.
In Chelsea, opposite the High Line, David Kelly of Rees Roberts + Partners recently completed a $1 million garden for the Kohn Pedersen Fox condo tower at 500 West 21st Street (pictured)
The garden spans the length of the building; the installation took an entire two years to complete
Composed of multiple layers of local trees, shrubs and flowers, Kelly's landscape design includes fully-grown 45 ft high honey locust trees and white birches
'With increasing urbanisation globally, residents are seeking the sanctuary of nature and a direct connection between indoor and outdoor space,' Blanc explains of the trend's increasing traction
-
A local’s guide to AtlantaDrawn by the city’s diversity and queer community, life coach and writer Cator Sparks returned to Atlanta after 25 years away. He shares his favourite haunts
-
Wael Shawky explores a theatrical moment in history in EdinburghPull strings to get there if you can, as the Egyptian artist presents the third film in his ‘The Crusades Cabaret’ trilogy, at Talbot Rice Gallery
-
All the best bits from Goodwood Festival of Speed 2025As car makers switch their allegiance to the sunny West Sussex countryside as a place to showcase their wares, a new generation of sports cars were sent running up that famous hill
-
How an icon of Japanese Metabolist architecture took on a life of its own – even after its destructionWhen Kishō Kurokawa designed the modular Nakagin Capsule Tower more than 50 years ago, he imagined it boarding ships and travelling the world. Now it has, thanks to a new show at MoMA
-
Florencia Rodriguez on the importance of curiosity, criticism and cultural freedomFlorencia Rodriguez, architect, writer and artistic director of this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial, comments on the state of the States
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the cloudsAt 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Discover this sleek-but-warm sanctuary in the heart of the Wyoming wildsThis glorious wood-and-stone residence never misses a chance to show off the stirring landscape it calls home
-
Inside a Montana house, putting the American West's landscape at its heartA holiday house in the Montana mountains, designed by Walker Warner Architects and Gachot Studios, scales new heights to create a fresh perspective on communing with the natural landscape
-
Peel back this Michigan lakeside house’s cool slate exterior to reveal a warm wooden homeIn Detroit, Michigan, this lakeside house, a Y-shaped home by Disbrow Iannuzzi Architects, creates a soft balance between darkness and light through its minimalist materiality
-
Inside the new theatre at Jacob’s Pillow and its ‘magic box’, part of a pioneering complex designed for danceJacob’s Pillow welcomes the reborn Doris Duke Theatre by Mecanoo, a new space that has just opened in the beloved Berkshires cultural hub for the summer season
-
A Rancho Mirage home is in tune with its location and its architect-owners’ passionsArchitect Steven Harris and his collaborator and husband, designer Lucien Rees Roberts, have built a home in Rancho Mirage, surrounded by some of America’s most iconic midcentury modern works; they invited us on a tour
