Suchergebnisse

International audience ; Living walls can help bring nature to urban canyons. However, contemporary living walls are cost prohibitive and made of materials with shorter life spans than their buildings. High cost often restricts their use to luxury applications promoting ecological symbolism rather than impactful propagation of urban nature. This study shows an approach to lowering living wall costs and increasing their use by integrating them into the building's structure. Existing living wall systems are hung like curtains from a building's façade; they are made as light as possible to reduce the weight they superimpose. Their lighter materials, e.g., felts and plastics, limit their life cycle. Conversely, combining the living function with the exterior envelope will match a living wall's life cycle to its building, and cost diminishes by eliminating a living wall's secondary support structure. This study focuses on concrete construction, a typology needing ecological evolution. Chosen for its ubiquity, durability, affordability, and plasticity, concrete was tested as a potential growing medium for plants. The result of the study is a new living concrete material and system aimed at advancing biophilic design in cities facing shifting climates and population densification. Presented are a new cast-in-place living wall system, a new concrete and its mechanical properties, verification of constructability, identification of plants suitable to cementitious environments, indoor germination and growth, full-scale tests of a new construction methodology, how concrete's chemical composition affects irrigation water, outdoor germination and perenniality, and a cost analysis showing a 50% reduction to the installed cost of living walls. Cost savings include plants grown from seed-in-situ (eliminating raising plants in a nursery and transplantation), and not using fertilizer (eliminating chemicals and a fertigation system). This study shows how rethinking the current living wall paradigm could shift the industry toward solutions to democratize living walls via lower cost and permanence.

International audience ; Living walls can help bring nature to urban canyons. However, contemporary living walls are cost prohibitive and made of materials with shorter life spans than their buildings. High cost often restricts their use to luxury applications promoting ecological symbolism rather than impactful propagation of urban nature. This study shows an approach to lowering living wall costs and increasing their use by integrating them into the building's structure. Existing living wall systems are hung like curtains from a building's façade; they are made as light as possible to reduce the weight they superimpose. Their lighter materials, e.g., felts and plastics, limit their life cycle. Conversely, combining the living function with the exterior envelope will match a living wall's life cycle to its building, and cost diminishes by eliminating a living wall's secondary support structure. This study focuses on concrete construction, a typology needing ecological evolution. Chosen for its ubiquity, durability, affordability, and plasticity, concrete was tested as a potential growing medium for plants. The result of the study is a new living concrete material and system aimed at advancing biophilic design in cities facing shifting climates and population densification. Presented are a new cast-in-place living wall system, a new concrete and its mechanical properties, verification of constructability, identification of plants suitable to cementitious environments, indoor germination and growth, full-scale tests of a new construction methodology, how concrete's chemical composition affects irrigation water, outdoor germination and perenniality, and a cost analysis showing a 50% reduction to the installed cost of living walls. Cost savings include plants grown from seed-in-situ (eliminating raising plants in a nursery and transplantation), and not using fertilizer (eliminating chemicals and a fertigation system). This study shows how rethinking the current living wall paradigm could shift the industry toward ...

International audience ; Living walls can help bring nature to urban canyons. However, contemporary living walls are cost prohibitive and made of materials with shorter life spans than their buildings. High cost often restricts their use to luxury applications promoting ecological symbolism rather than impactful propagation of urban nature. This study shows an approach to lowering living wall costs and increasing their use by integrating them into the building's structure. Existing living wall systems are hung like curtains from a building's façade; they are made as light as possible to reduce the weight they superimpose. Their lighter materials, e.g., felts and plastics, limit their life cycle. Conversely, combining the living function with the exterior envelope will match a living wall's life cycle to its building, and cost diminishes by eliminating a living wall's secondary support structure. This study focuses on concrete construction, a typology needing ecological evolution. Chosen for its ubiquity, durability, affordability, and plasticity, concrete was tested as a potential growing medium for plants. The result of the study is a new living concrete material and system aimed at advancing biophilic design in cities facing shifting climates and population densification. Presented are a new cast-in-place living wall system, a new concrete and its mechanical properties, verification of constructability, identification of plants suitable to cementitious environments, indoor germination and growth, full-scale tests of a new construction methodology, how concrete's chemical composition affects irrigation water, outdoor germination and perenniality, and a cost analysis showing a 50% reduction to the installed cost of living walls. Cost savings include plants grown from seed-in-situ (eliminating raising plants in a nursery and transplantation), and not using fertilizer (eliminating chemicals and a fertigation system). This study shows how rethinking the current living wall paradigm could shift the industry toward ...

This book examines the past, present and future of management in the transitional economies of East and Central Europe, Russia, the People's Republic of China, and Vietnam.

Political street art and slogans appear as visual markers of the shifting, complex discourses of power struggles, marginality, and countercultures that establish a new reality which must be seen and heard. As an art form, it is largely connected to and inspired by the existing social conditions. In the era of crisis, the central Athens of bygone years is now a terrain of conflict and metamorphosis, and the city's walls are screaming a thousand stories. In other words, city walls are the canvas, and social conditions are the paint in a gallery of untold stories. Redefined symbols, decomposed stereotypes, re-visioned aesthetics, and antiracist slogans are the tools for the transformation of walls into social diaries. In this light, street art is examined as a form of social diary, a visual history of marginalized and minority groups. Street art captures the need for self-expression in a changing environment, and street artists actively participate in the production of culture in the micro level by consciously contributing to the need for urban re-visions. ; Политическое уличное искусство и слоганы являются визуальным отображением изменяющихся сложных дискурсов борьбы за власть, маргинальности и контркультур, они создают новую реальность, которая должна быть увидена и услышана. Как художественная форма стрит-арт тесно связан с имеющимися социальными условиями, в которых он черпает вдохновение. В эпоху кризиса центральная часть Афин стала полем конфликтов и метаморфоз, городские стены здесь кричат о тысячах разных историй. Они являются полотном для изображений в галерее нерасказанных историй. Переопределенные символы, разобранные стереотипы, переосмысленные образы и антирасистские слоганы служат «инструментами» для превращения стен в «общественный дневник». В этой перспективе стрит-арт рассматривается как форма общественного дневника, визуальной истории маргинализованных групп и меньшинств. Стрит-арт улавливает потребность в самовыражении в изменившемся контексте. Таким образом, уличные художники активно участвуют в производстве культуры на микроуровне, внося осознанный вклад в трансформацию городского видения.