Since there was some complains about a country like Singapore controlling the narrative of Solarpink design, I thought I share an intressting project from Hamburg. The main structure is a massive WW2 era bunker. The walls are 3.5m thick concrete and steel, so demolition is not easy nor cheap. But it also means putting trees on top of it, actually is somewhat sensible. The bunker will house a permanent Nazi history museum, focussing on the reason of construction, a hotel at the top, a large concert hall and an art exhibition space. The green platforms at the site allow visitors to walk on top the structures to enjoy the views.
Obviousy this has some problems, mainly the capitalist hotel, but still a fairly intressting project and the aesthetics are pretty solarpunk.
Green roofs are impractical because dirt is heavy (not to mention the associated trees, plants, water, etc) and it traps moisture which damages the roof. And it’s difficult to repair the roof because you have to move the soil to get to the roof. So the roof has to be extremely over-engineered to hold the weight of the green roof and not decay underneath it.
As it happens, the roof of this building is extremely over-engineered by normal standards, because normal buildings aren’t designed to survive carpet bombing.
It’s a wonderful repurposing.
I understand the arguments against it but I still think trees and greenery are such an important aspect of human health and wellbeing that it’s worthy of consideration in some situations. Particularly as the world continues to urbanize and densify to accommodate increasing populations, people won’t easily be able live around gardens, nature, and agriculture as they did in the past. So where else is left to restore that greenery than somewhere in or on the built environment? There are lower hanging fruits like planting more trees on the ground level but I don’t think those will be enough to reach the levels of vegetation/canopy needed for human health in areas where most of the land surface is buildings.
It may be difficult and expensive but it’s not over-engineered if it’s the best way to achieve a necessary goal.