Designs by Italian architect Stefano Boeri for a verdant mixed-use tower have been given the green light by officials in Lausanne, Switzerland, Gizmag reports.
Office spaces, luxury apartments, and a 53,819-sf retail center will comprise the 36-floor structure, which renderings depict as a tower stacked Jenga style with white rectangular units and patches of green trees and shrubbery strewn throughout.
Dubbed La Tour des Cedres (or Cedar Trees Tower), the architect says the green design will be boosted by other sustainable technology, such as solar power and rainwater collection. Among the plants will be 100 of the tower’s namesake plant, cedar trees, 6,000 shrubs, and 18,000 other plants, most of them native to the area. Together, the plants will make up more than 32,200 sf of greenery.
The cantilevered concrete planters and loggia are being engineered by BuroHappold “as prefabricated units that connect directly to the tower’s reinforced concrete frame,” Gizmag reports.
But green architecture writer and critic Lloyd Alter of TreeHugger argues that the amount of reinforced concrete needed to accomplish Boeri’s design may cancel out all the other conservation and sustainability endeavors of the building.
“Trees, and the soil they need to survive and grow, are heavy, and it takes a lot of reinforced concrete to support them on these cantilevered balconies. Concrete is responsible for 5 to 7 percent of the carbon dioxide we produce, so the responsible and sustainable thing is to use less of it,” Alter writes. “Without an analysis of how much concrete is needed to support these trees, [versus] how much CO2 the trees absorb, you can't call this sustainable design.”
According to DesignBoom, La Tour des Cedres is due to begin construction in 2017.
Related Stories
Mixed-Use | Feb 14, 2020
Kenya’s Pinnacle Tower will be the tallest tower in Africa
ArchGroup Consultants is designing the project.
Mixed-Use | Feb 13, 2020
1010 On-The-Rhine creates a walkable destination in Cincinnati
GBBN designed the project.
Sustainability | Feb 12, 2020
KPF unveils The Pinnacle at Central Wharf, a high-performance, resilient tower
The project will reconnect Downtown Boston to the waterfront.
Mixed-Use | Feb 11, 2020
KTGY unveils designs for Downtown Superior’s Main Street mixed-use portion
The development will be built in Superior, Colo.
Mixed-Use | Feb 7, 2020
Rising to the occasion
Roof deck entertainment spaces are popular amenities that present engineering and code complexities.
Mixed-Use | Jan 27, 2020
Dubai’s One Za’abeel will have the world’s largest cantilever
Nikken Sekkei is designing the project.
Mixed-Use | Jan 17, 2020
RMJM designs conjoined, twisting towers in Hengyang, China
The towers will rise 580 feet.
Mixed-Use | Dec 18, 2019
BIG unveils River Street Waterfront Master Plan for Williamsburg
The project is a collaboration between BIG, Two Trees Management, and James Corner Field Operations.
Mixed-Use | Nov 26, 2019
Chicago’s first citizenM hotel to be part of Sterling Bay’s mixed-use Michigan Ave. development
bKL will serve as the project’s lead architect.
Multifamily Housing | Oct 25, 2019
Chicago’s long-gestating luxury condo tower nears construction
Helmut Jahn designed the project.