But what if plucking your own fresh food from the soil were as easy as opening the door of an appliance in your kitchen? That’s what LG Electronics aims to offer with its new indoor vegetable cultivator, set to be unveiled at CES 2020. The “Column Garden” is a slim cabinet-style appliance that can be used alone or in multiples, designed to be built right into your kitchen alongside your refrigerator.

Equipped with a host of smart functions, the Column Garden eliminates a lot of the guesswork that often comes with indoor gardening, making sure that all the plants inside have just the right light, temperature, and water levels to thrive. You don’t have to have a particularly green thumb, or even a love of gardening, to use it. In fact, you barely even have to get your hands dirty.

The appliance replicates optimal outdoor growing conditions by matching the temperature inside the cabinet with the time of day, automatically manipulating the system’s LED lights, air circulation, and wick-based water management. The Column Garden also comes with 24 all-in-one seed packages, which LG says is enough for a family of four “to enjoy the healthful benefits and culinary delights of a wide range of home-grown edibles.”

The technology also takes a few other important factors into consideration. Since exposure to moisture and air is carefully controlled, you don’t have to worry about the inside growing algae or developing weird musty odors. Everything you need to get started comes with the Column Garden, including peat moss and fertilizer. Though LG hasn’t provided a full list of the seed types yet, they say they’ll include various kinds of lettuce, arugula, chicory, and basil. It’s easy to imagine all sorts of greens, herbs, and even fruits like strawberries thriving in this setup.

The official press release on LG Newsroom reads: “LG’s indoor gardening appliance lets even the complete novice experience the fun and joy of having a green thumb. Designed for the millions of consumers worldwide who want the peace of mind knowing exactly what’s in their food and where it comes from, the innovative indoor gardening appliance cultivates crisp, fresh herbs and vegetables all year-round, perfect for urban dwellers or anyone interested in pursuing a healthier, greener lifestyle.”

“With more and more consumers these days living vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, it was important for us to contribute to this trend,” says Dan Song, president of LG Electronics. “Our first indoor gardening solution represents a new paradigm for LG in home appliances, offering a way for consumers to eat well while providing the joy of growing their own food, consistent with LG’s overall goal of making life better.”

Details on pricing and when the Column Garden will be released for sale aren’t available just yet, but more info is likely to be revealed at CES 2020.

The post LG’s New Smart Kitchen Appliance Makes Indoor Gardening a Snap first appeared on Dornob.

“Our design for the project responds to the layering of Tokyo; the juxtapositions of scale and the character of buildings that draw the eye upwards,” says Neil Hubbard, group leader at Heatherwick Studio.

“Set within a natural valley, we have chosen to accentuate that topography through our design, creating an undulating arrangement that uses a pergola-like structural system to create a variety of landscaped spaces, from hidden gardens to sunken courtyards. Weaving and flowing through the scheme, a family of pavilions emerges from the grid of the pergola. Rather than focus on one single impression, we hope to encourage exploration by creating hundreds of moments to be revealed and discovered.”

Led by architect Thomas Heatherwick, London-based Heatherwick Studio is no stranger to working living vegetation into its designs. In this case, the “planted pergola” makes brilliant use of an irregularly shaped plot, with an undulating roof that stretches down to reach the ground and planted balconies tucked into the vertical spaces.

“As many new developments around the world can be harsh and sterile, we wondered if we could provide a more human-centered alternative by integrating surprisingly intense quantities of planting and greenery,” says Heatherwick.

“As a way of combining an architectural construction system with significant amounts of nature, we developed the idea of a garden pergola scaled up to district size. This concept has allowed us to bring an overarching logic to an eight-hectare piece of Tokyo whilst also making space for facilities such as housing, shops, hotels, spas, a school, and a temple within the sections framed by the grid.”

Some areas of the “planted pergola” penetrate the ground, reaching down into the basement levels to provide natural light. The design references traditional Japanese crafts like edo kiriko, a 19th-century glass etching technique.

The project is the first by Heatherwick Studio to be constructed in Japan, and it’s set for completion in March 2023. Other structures in the district are currently underway, including apartment towers with wood-clad interiors by architect Sou Fujimoto, hotels, and a seven-story school for 700 international students. All of them will be connected by an underground pedestrian tunnel that contains a food hall.

Developer Mori aims for Toranomon-Azabudai to be a “modern urban village” offering a park-like atmosphere in the heart of Tokyo. It’s been in the works for 30 years, and construction finally began on August 5th, 2019.

“It’s been a remarkable period over the last four years to work with Mori Building Company, to create this new part of Tokyo — going beyond the norms of typical large mixed-use developments to create something meaningfully embedded within the city,” says Hubbard.

The post Heatherwick Studio Proposes a Planted Pergola Building for Tokyo first appeared on Dornob.

Among these exceptions is the GREENOX Residence by Mental Design Works. Set among Istanbul’s tangle of concrete, Turkey’s “first vertical forest” proves that the ultimate results of an ambitious architectural project can be just as beautiful and exciting as the initial illustrations. An astonishing 900 trees cover the entire facade of the 16-story high rise, peeking out of staggered balconies that create a dynamic zig-zagging pattern as you gaze up at them from the sidewalk. The developers describe the GREENOX project as “lungs” for Istanbul, perpetually oxygenating the city and increasing its biodiversity.

With a name fittingly derived from the words “green” and “oxygen,” it’s not so surprising that this 170-unit residential tower is every bit as green on the inside as it is on the surface. The building incorporates high-efficiency boilers for space heating and hot water, low-flow faucets, solar panels, built-in graywater treatment, and rainwater collection systems — not to mention a material palette that helps it save 35 percent more energy, 42 percent more water, and 41 percent more embodied energy than a similarly sized conventional apartment building.

All of these features helped GREENOX earn the World Bank Group’s EDGE certification, which recognizes “Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies.” EDGE actively participates in the funding and planning of sustainable architectural projects, helping them find systems and solutions that work best for different climates and bringing international cachet to the table without sacrificing local context. Thus far, EDGE projects have saved a collective 246,627 MWh of energy and 6,611,561 cubic meters of water per year.

“The unique visual appeal of GREENOX draws customers interested in living a sustainable lifestyle,” EDGE explains. “GREENOX became a reality when two major real estate developers, Aycan Real Estate and Feres Gayrimenkul, combined to form Aycan-Feres Joint Venture. GREENOX is the first project the new partnership has completed together.”

“The unique residential building is located in the heart of the European side of Istanbul in close proximity to business, shopping, and entertainment. GREENOX contains 170 units consisting of one and two-bedroom apartments. Residents have access to outdoor spaces, a rooftop swimming pool, and entertainment facilities. With many terraces to enjoy the outdoors, residents will be able to enjoy the natural appeal of GREENOX.”

Part of a global trend toward sustainable architecture, the GREENOX Residence is also one of many new buildings being constructed in the city of Istanbul to prepare for an “inevitable” major earthquake. As older buildings are demolished and new, seismically safer buildings are erected in their place, projects like GREENOX could serve as models for a new wave of visually-captivating, resource-efficient architecture.

The post The Towering GREENOX Urban Residence is Turkey’s First Vertical Forest first appeared on Dornob.

Instead of waiting for government officials to jump on the green space trend, some city dwellers are taking matters into their own hands by turning their homes into lush oases of living plants. When you have access to a yard, creating your own private paradise is a lot easier — but what if you live in an apartment tower? For Bangkok-based architecture studio Apostrophy’s, the answer was building a 25-foot-tall vertical garden stretching up to a spacious skylight, making use of the full height of the condominium.

Created for use by the firm’s director in his private residence, “Feature House” transforms the interior of a unit that looks ordinary and unassuming from the outside. The designers opened up a void in the roof, which they call the “moon door,” to transmit daylight all the way through to the ground floor. A smart home system allows the residents to control how much light is getting in and even the direction in which it shines into the home. The vertical garden is located on the back side of the house.

The garden was designed to fill the gap between busy urban lifestyles and nature, says Apostrophy’s. The designers wanted a solution that was tailored to the limited space of a townhouse yet dramatic and effective. They placed carefully selected plants on a series of vertical shelves, adding UV lamps and a watering/fertilizing system in so that the residents wouldn’t have to constantly climb ladders to keep the greenery alive.

Deliberately oversized furniture, such as an extra-long dining table, complements the stark black-and-white color scheme, which is in turn accented by gold vertical shelving. Each floor has its own theme, with the bottom level representing the earth and the origins of life, the second representing terrestrial animals, and the third representing air, wind, and insects.

The designers mixed the owner’s eclectic personal collection of furnishings and decorative objects from global travels with their modern twist on classic Asian aesthetics. High-end modern furniture from the West contrasts with chinoiserie, which the designers define as “the reinterpretation of oriental ornament into Western tradition.”

“Thus, the overall space would be elegant as the Western style but still keep the soul of the East,” they say.

It might not be a replacement for parks, but you have to admit, sitting in that acrylic bubble chair gazing up at the sky through the leaves of hundreds of plants isn’t a bad way to adjust to city living.

The post Vertical Garden Apartment in Thailand first appeared on Dornob.

That’s definitely the case with the “LESS House” in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City. Designed by local firm H.a (Human Architecture), this home is encompassed by perforated metal screens, which extend out of its front and sides and reach almost all the way to the curb. By day, the house is nearly opaque, but at night it becomes translucent and takes on a magical, lantern-like glow. Inside, a series of sliding glass doors can be used to close rooms off from one another or to open the entire home up to the fresh outdoor atmosphere. One piece of the facade sections off a tropical garden full of small trees and shrubs. The punctured screen helps these plants absorb plenty of sunlight. In turn, they are able to create cleaner, more breathable air for the home’s residents.

Strategically placed planter boxes, all painted a soothing shade of aqua, stretch across parts of the facade to promote the growth of vertical greenery and block outside views of the home’s bedrooms. These plants are just big enough to make the house feel private while still allowing sunlight into it. The boxes’ color acts as a recurring motif throughout the whole design: you’ll find the same vibrant aqua spotted along one of the home’s back walls and in the recesses of its upper-level skylights.

Diffused light is another one of LESS House’s major themes. In its master shower, for instance, a ceiling of colored glass blocks scatters prismatic refractions along the walls and floor. Abundances of light like this one give the entire building an expansive feel. Looking at photos of the home’s interior, you’d never guess that it was crammed into an extremely narrow plot that measures just 12 feet in width! The two-story structure accommodates a family of seven and can adapt to any of their layout needs thanks to all of its movable partitions and multifunctional furniture.

“The house is designed to remove any inherent limitations,” say the architects. “The partition system can be movable, the woven garden appear and disappear alternative together, the toilet hidden in the wood cabinets, the sun shines everywhere, the breeze comes around.”

The LESS House’s design is well-suited to its surrounding temperate climate, where residents are able to enjoy outdoor spaces year-round. In colder cities, however, the outdoor spaces of perforated structures might be adorned with patio heaters and fire pits. If this architectural trend were to catch on, a lack of exposed vegetation could potentially drain cities of their natural vibrancy. Still, it’s hard to deny LESS House’s many benefits.  H.a’s innovative idea has turned this city home into a private outdoor oasis with plenty of access to fresh, clean air.

The post Translucent Garden House Glows like a Lantern at Night first appeared on Dornob.

‘Garden House’ by Hayhurst & Co maximizes the available space on a residential roof with an angular addition covered in a terraced arrangement of planters made from marine-grade stainless steel and ribbed geotextile fleece for thermal protection and drainage.

The scheme provides a pyramid-shaped surface suitable for growing hundreds of plants with low water needs, making it easy for the residents to care for them. These V-shaped trays are arranged horizontally on the 30- and 45-degree pitched roofs.

The plot has properties owned by other people on all of sides, so having large skylights on the roof helps bring daylight in while maintaining privacy. The sloping profile of the addition is designed to fit in with neighboring buildings, and the clients’ living quarters are tucked into the ground floor. This imaginative design got ‘Garden House’ a place among the 20 houses vying for this year’s RIBA House of the Year award.

More from the architects

“Garden House is a new home, studio and gallery under a ‘hanging-basket’ roof for Whitaker Malem: the artist and costume-maker duo behind works by Allen Jones, fashion designers Hussein Chalayan and Alexander McQueen and numerous film costumes including Harry Potter, Batman and Wonderwoman.”


“On the site of a single-story workshop they built in the mid 1990s, the clients wished to create a new home an studio which maximized the space and natural light available within their tight, north-facing site behind Victorian terraced housing in Hackney’s de Beauvoir Conservation area, in London’s East End.”

“Devised as three different roof pitches, the design creates a ‘form of best fit’ – a negotiation between maximizing internal accommodation and protecting adjacent residential amenity. Garden House sets a model of how to maximize residential accommodation in sensitive inner city areas whilst meeting national and local planning policies.”

“On the ground floor, a sequence of open-plan spaces form dedicated living, dining, cooking and sleeping zones. The upper floor is lined with oak panelling to provide a rich environment for the studio, which is also used as a fitting room for clients and as a gallery space for private exhibitions of the owners’ work.”

“The roof is a bespoke hanging garden formed from stepped, stainless-steel profiles planted with a habitat of over 800 sedums and heathers – a unique and biodiverse intervention that remains active and can be farmedI The result is a new prototype for inner-city, back-lot development creating dense and adaptable urban living.”

The post Amazing Vertical Garden on a Terraced Rooftop in London first appeared on Dornob.

Airplantman sounds like a super hero, and maybe he is. His real name is Josh Rosen and he creates stunning air plant designs, including fantastic vertical squares to display a plethora of tillandsia aka Tillys.

Rosen’s piece the resistance is his large Airplantframe, a stunning piece of living art. The beautiful frame is made from an eco-friendly, powder-coated aluminum and hand-strung stainless steel cable. The materials are completely recyclable, and a percentage of the profits goes toward air plant eco system protection.

You can get your vertical garden started easily with the plant booster kit, which includes 10-20 species at different sizes, or sign up for club membership where fresh boxes arrive at your doorstep regularly. His website shows instructions on the “how to,” from light to watering, fertilization and more.

One can also get a gorgeous square frame measuring 11”x11” in hip colors such as matte black or white, and glossy orange or aqua.

Finally, there are a variety of stylish vessels made in ceramics, steel and wood to display the gorgeous tillandsia.

The post Airplantman: A Vertical Garden for Your Home first appeared on Dornob.

Imagine growing enough greens and veggies for you and your family to fit your daily needs – in a corner of your apartment. All the kale and herbs and melons you need. A whole tower of kale, if you so desire! The Nutritower makes it possible.

Urban and vertical farming have been gaining steam around the globe as of late. They could be a potential key factor in feeding our planet’s exploding population. But let’s just think of you and your veggie-growing kitchen for a moment. The NutriTower is an ingenuous indoor gardening system. The vertical hydroponic constellation allows you to grow fresh food right in your home. Size-wise, it comes in at just three square feet and a bit over seven feet tall. It can hold 48 pots! Its height is the key factor in producing enough food to yield a decent harvest every single day of the year. Built-in lighting permits you to grow anywhere in your house, regardless of light conditions.

The vertical system allows you to customize what you’d like to grow, including fruit and veggies such as tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, all kinds of fresh herbs and lettuce, as well as sturdy greens like kale and Swiss chard. Maintenance is rather minimal. The concept was designed by Bryce Nagels in Montreal, Canada, where folks deal with long winters. Besides the shortage of daylight for a long period of the year, Nagels was also concerned with limited space, since many of us live in urban areas in small condos and apartments.

The NutriTower arrives with a seedling starter kit featuring seeds, a three-month supply of plant nutrient formula, light bulbs, pump and timers. This indoor gardening system started as a Kickstarter campaign and received help from www.sparkinnovations.com. It will be available as of December 1, 2015, but it can be pre-ordered now.

Learn more at nutritower.com

The post Grow a Daily Harvest with the NutriTower Vertical Farm first appeared on Dornob.

The post Green Walled Home Features Different Plants for Each Area first appeared on Dornob.

This French apartment building is equipped with wavy balconies that extend the living space and create a fascinating visual effect from outside. Each balcony alternates wavy parts with the balcony below it, providing residents a surprising amount of vertical space and creating a fun look for the facade.

The idea behind the project was to call to mind stacked villas which are wide open to the environment. By adding the wrap-around balconies to the inexpensive housing units, the architects – ECDM Architectes – effectively doubled the living space of each unit.

Each level of the building features a slightly different floor plan so that no residence overlooks another. This careful planning gives the housing development’s residents a high level of privacy – something that most apartment balconies just can’t offer.

The terraces are outfitted in perforated metal balustrades which let in plenty of light. Thin green garden equipment cupboards separate one balcony from the next. From the street, these cupboards create vertical green lines that run up the height of the buildings.

As the residents have begun to plant vegetation on their balconies, the plants have created the appearance of the entire building being a huge vertical terraced garden.

More from the architects

“The idea was to extend the surface of the apartments by balconies representing a minima 50% of the living area with a drastic construction cost : 1350 € / sqm. The project implements objective values where all the constructive and architectural aspects are drafted for their practical value and their economic performance. The façade serve as an expression of a living place whose alternate sinusoids movements are realized in order to allow an optimal amount of sunlight despite cantilevers up to 3.20 meters of depth. Therefore, in front of each living room, the amplitude of the balcony is maximum and refines in front of the rooms or secondary rooms.”

“Dwellings are alternated floor by floor in order to never superimpose living rooms. Then despite very generous dimensions of balconies, there is no mask effect between apartments. The unique qualities of the location provide an opportunity to re-think the creation of a link between a landscape and settlements patterns.”

The post French Apartment Building Looks Like a Giant White Layer Cake first appeared on Dornob.

Design a vertical garden that looks like a work of abstract art in any size, ranging from an accent piece to an entire wall, with plantable modular concrete tiles. The Deltaflore system by French designer Benjamin Pawlica is designed to expand for ultimate versatility. These triangular tiles marry horticulture and art and can be used indoors or out.

Different looks can be achieved depending on the types of plants chosen, from simple, minimalist moss to trailing ferns and vines. The tiles could make up an entire exterior facade of a building, form a towering green wall indoors or be used as decor just like a painting.

The design of the tiles is visually dynamic enough for the wall to offer aesthetic value even before it’s filled in with plants. They can also be used to create free-standing walls rather than hung on an existing wall.

The post Plants as Living Modern Art: Modular Concrete Garden Tiles first appeared on Dornob.

The facade of a curving modern home in Saitama, Japan gets a pop of color and a shaded outdoor lounge area thanks to a creative green screen stretching from the roof to the grass. This curtain of vines forms a physical and visual connection between the home and the garden outside, lowering the average temperature of the terrace by ten degrees.

Hideo Kamaki Architects employed passive design principles to create a surface that has both aesthetic and practical value. The green screen filters sunlight, providing a cool refuge and helping to lower the home’s utility bills.

Planted with climbing vines that produce pink blooms, the green wall becomes a primary design feature of the home, the slanted lines complementing the structure’s many curves.

Large glass windows give a direct view of the terrace and green screen from the interior living spaces, and the lines between outdoors and in are blurred.

More about ‘Green Screen House’ from the architect, Hideo Kumaki:

“The green screen which is coved in front of building is very important function to explain for this design. This green screen are for the sun protection against inside room, and for one function of outer dinning which is healed in mind between July and the end of October. I mean that the former is one of thermal comfort adjusting, this is necessary to avoid too much expense for electric energy by Air condition. It is effective and contribute for global environment, somehow.”

“Actually 10 degrees difference was confirmed in the outside and the inside of green screen.　And it is also because it is cooler effect by the planting of nature, and cool wind enters the room. So that, we can stay there coolly by Screen. Then, the latter is to feel comfortable and relax to see green from living and dining. And we can also go to terrace to have lunch or play pool with kids as fantastic extra room. I feel that it was given the reward of nature. We can take such a passive system in more houses and may enjoy contribution to global environment and the space creation with own pleasure.”

The post Curtain of Vines Adds Shade and Color to Modern Home first appeared on Dornob.

Backyard buildings are usually unsightly metal or plastic things that serve only to store the things that you use to maintain your home. But this stunning ivy-covered backyard building in San Francisco is an office/art studio that is far more impressive than that.

The lovely backyard building was designed and built by Scott Lewis Landscaping Architecture, who call it Parkside Garden. The name comes from the fact that the building is located at the edge of a lush park. This tiny but impressive structure seems like a natural extension of the park, carrying the greenery from the public space onto the homeowner’s private land.

To create a visual and physical connection between the main home and the garden/backyard studio, the architects constructed a lovely hardscaped terrace. The terrace extends from the main living area into the serene green outdoor space.

Referred to by the designers as a “green cube,” the small building seems to itself be alive. The ivy that grows on all of the exterior walls gives way only for the windows and roof. As the plants continue to grow and spread, the building will change and mature, allowing for a perpetually-changing outdoor sanctuary.

“Bordering a wooded city park, this garden blends modern forms and lush green and white plantings. Scott Lewis Landscape Architecture designed a wedge-shaped terrace to visually widen the site and extend the home’s living area. The small art studio was encased in an ivy-covered framework, creating a green cube focal point. The home’s modern interior is reflected in the garden’s contemporary shapes.”

The project won an Honor Award in the 2010 ASLA Professional Awards.

“This is a wonderful example of the potential for a very compact urban garden space to add incredible dimension, beauty, connection to nature, and livability to this home,” wrote the jury. “The garden room has been transformed from a completely underutilized space to a wholly integrated extension of the living spaces of the home. The project exhibits a very practical application of sustainable practices, including various water conservation measures and extensive adaptive re-use of existing materials, vegetation, and the garden pavilion, which creates has been transformed into a contemporary, sculptural, and useful sheltered space within the garden. The diversity of plantings provide a rich naturalistic aesthetic quality within a simple, modern form.”

The post Relaxing Ivy-Covered Backyard Building is a Lush Home Office first appeared on Dornob.

What looks like an imposing, monolithic black volume from the outside is filled with air, light and greenery on the inside. Casa CorManca is a modern, sustainable home in Mexico City with vertical vegetation spanning three stories in an interior courtyard. The green wall helps control the temperature inside the home, and brings a sense of energy and vitality into the space.

The plot of land the house sits on measures just 39 by 42 feet, so creative measures had to be taken in order to create a spacious home for a family that takes advantage of every inch while also feeling open and airy inside. Local architect Paul Cremoux was focused on sustainable solutions, seeing vegetation and indoor/outdoor interior spaces as a natural way to make the home both practical and visually stimulating.

The green wall stretches up an interior courtyard occupying the center of the home, which has one side open to the sky. Over 4,000 plants in the vertical garden filter the air and create humidity in the dry desert climate. Stairs lead from this airy space to terraces between bedrooms and other private spaces on the upper floor.

The dark slate of the exterior contrasts with the soft, light beech wood surfaces of the interior. Large windows look out from the enclosed spaces onto the courtyard, which brings daylight flooding into the home. The green wall makes up for the lack of space for a yard or garden outside.

More from the architects

“On a 12 meters by 13 meters (39ft by 42ft) plot of land, a monolithic volume is transformed in order to attain luminous indoor spaces. Slade stone at the exterior facades is contrasted with the soft beech wood finish, achieving great definition and special discovery. Built in a small plot of land 176 m2, (1894 SqFt), the construction rises looking south to the vertical vegetation garden wall. It is a 3 stories high assembly where the main terrace is to be found at the second level, follow by a small lecture studio.”

“This area is intent to transform radically the notion of ‘open patio garden’ since there is not really space to ensure a ground courtyard, the main terrace plays a social definitive roll.”

The post Beautiful Three-Story Green Wall Breathes Life into a Home first appeared on Dornob.

Most of us share our homes with nature every day by placing house plants, bird feeders and birdhouses in and around our residences – but these ingenious “Brick Habitats” let us share our walls in a quite literal sense. Brick Habitats are the creation of designer Chooi-leng Tan. She invented these modules to help bring nature back to the places it has been unceremoniously pushed out of: residential neighborhoods. They make it easy to host wildlife in urban areas.

The suite consists of three different types of special bricks. They can be used alone or in combination to add planters, habitats and feeders for the flora and fauna you would like to support.

Bowl-shaped pieces can be used upright or inverted to create habitats, feeders or perches for birds or insects. A bowl-shaped brick with a ring-shaped piece above it can be used as a planter for herbs, vegetables or lovely flowers to make your own customized vertical garden.

Of course, the Brick Habitat bricks would have to be integrated during new construction because they are designed to be part of a wall itself. The designer doesn’t explain what happens if one of the special pieces gets damaged or broken off. But the design is still in the concept stage, allowing time for plenty of refinement before the idea is ready to be brought into the real world.

Sometimes a design is so close to hitting the mark that you can’t help but dream about tweaking it just a tiny bit. What if these modules somehow snapped onto existing bricks instead, so that people could add them onto their upper-floor apartment walls and other spaces that are lacking wildlife? Perhaps they’d have to be a lighter material, something just as beautiful as Tan’s design. But Brick Habitats have a lot of promise, and it’s fun to imagine how you’d design an entire home around their inclusion.

The post Brick Habitats Host Wildlife Right on Your Exterior Walls first appeared on Dornob.

The many benefits of living in the city come with a few drawbacks as well – namely, the lack of yards and garden space. French designers Barreau & Charbonnet have come up with a charming idea to put gardens into even the most cramped of urban domiciles.

The Volet Vegetal is a simple addition that fits onto the outside of a window. There, it gets all of the sunshine it needs while making the building look more vibrant and lively.

But the really compelling thing about the Volet Vegetal is its ability to transition from a horizontal garden – sticking straight out from the window sill – to a vertical garden, completely filling the area of the open window.

As the garden changes position via a simple pair of pulleys, the troughs holding the plants pivot, keeping them constantly level. The horizontal position allows for the maximum amount of sunshine to reach the plants.

When the garden is brought into the fully vertical position it offers easy access for care and watering. In this position it also acts as a sort of natural window blind, filtering the cityscape outside through a layer of beautiful growing plants.

The creators of the concept have also thought ahead for the winter months, envisioning an indoor frame system. The window unit could be transferred to the indoor frame when the weather turns cold, transforming the setup into a year-round green space.

Here’s the project description from the Jardin Jardins contest:

The window-mounted chassis, which holds three planters, is operated via pulley, as a sort of drawbridge outfitted with houseplants and herbs:”Volet Végétal”‘ is a project that we thought for a Parisian design contest “Jardin Jardin” as an industrial product for people who are living in apartment deprived of gardens and balcony. Users have just to plug the structure on the outside of their windows. Horizontal position to enlarge a green view on the city land by trying to go further from the facade of the building and get more ornamental stand for plant. Vertical to create a shutter of light, a filter for green air and also for an easy garden upkeeping.

The post Volet Vegetal: Drawbridge-Style Urban Window Garden first appeared on Dornob.