The roof of Di Tella University’s main building, located in a residential area of the City of Buenos Aires, is a particular case of green roof. Extending across 1,600 square meters and built on the rooftop of an existing five-story building, the new recreational area is only partly implemented as a technical green roof: 700 square meters meet the general technical requirements of a green roof and 900 square meters offer diverse open spaces with no growing medium or plant cover.
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Here, the key objective was that of providing more available open public spaces for the students and the university’s staff, with the bonus of a breathtaking 360 degree view of the city.
Opened in 2013 as a new “campus”, the site didn’t offer large green spaces or open areas for gathering because its central space was occupied by parking lots. In the process of changing this situation and given the urgent need for green areas, some professors of the Architecture and Landscape Architecture’s faculties suggested to use the rooftop instead.
Preserving the good
The building was originally erected in the early 1940s and was renovated after an almost 50-year period of stagnation. The completion and opening of the campus took place in 2013 and the new roof became accessible in 2017. The project for the roof is related to the construction of new master classrooms, administration offices and a restaurant on the fifth floor, which used to be the rooftop in the past, only used for mechanical equipment. This meant that the existing drainage system would be “moved up” one floor, responding to the designer’s main concern of preserving this existing system as far as possible.
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The area, which is a rectangle of 90 x 25 meters, was differentiated into spaces that respond to diverse possible uses: relaxing, gathering and an open-air amphitheater. The planting plan is related to this differentiation; the non-accessible areas are covered with a combination of sedum species which have minimum maintenance requirements and provide colors and textures and, conversely, some lawn patches that provide areas to sit and lay down. These lawn pieces are built on the slopes of the gable roof that covers the new master classrooms.
The connector
However, anticipating the need for walking spaces, the architects reduced the area of the gable roof by leaving available areas along three sides of the rooftop and resulting in a U-shaped esplanade. When extending along the full breadth of the larger side of the roof, this esplanade turns into a generous three meters-wide promenade. Finished with concrete tiles and bordered by a tall transparent curtain-wall, this walkway becomes the main connector between the different spots: a continuous balcony opening towards the city, the large old trees and, looking northeast, the splendid Plate River.
Pleasant views
At the eastern side of the roof, responding to the need of concentrating higher loads at the edges of the slab and reducing them in the center, a row of trees blooms in the summer. Wooden benches offer a variety of situations and the open-air amphitheater creates the perfect ambience to rest and watch. Placed in three rows of seven 4.50 meters-long benches, this arrangement produces a great spot to enjoy the views and the breeze along the roof, far away from classes and lessons, at least for a while.
Reaching the highest level of the building, a lookout allows watching the far-away crowns of the urban woods and the river.
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Location: City of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Area of the rooftop: 1,600 m2
Date of Completion: 2017
Client: University Torcuato Di Tella
Landscape Architecture Plan: Grupo Landscape-Cora Burgin
Architectural Project: RDR Arquitectos (Richter, Dahl Rocha, Emmer and Morando)
Photography: Javier Agustín Rojas, Cora Burgin, Bruno Emmer
Roof greening and plantings are an almost mandatory part of nowadays developments. For a good reason: Green roofs not only have an appearance, they also have an impact on the urban climate. Rainwater is collected and used by the plants, while the roof cools down in the urban heat island.
With the Planar House, Studio MK27 raised roof greening to the next level. Laying outside of São Paulo, the building isn’t struggling with heat islands and surface sealing, it’s a radical horizontal design, which try to hide in its grassy surroundings. Most remarkable feature is a vast 1,000-square-meter roof, barely identifiable as part of a building.
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Roof as Façade
The lack of visible support beams and the large overhang seem to let the roof flying. From some perspectives of the surrounding hills, the building seems to disappear completely. The roof appears to be a rectangular grass area. Also, from the side view, the top panel is the defining element of the structure. “This type of insertion on the plot demanded care and attention with the design of the rooftop, which is the fifth facade of the building,” the architects said. On aerial photographs, only the terrace and the solar panels reveal the presence of a building.
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Spacious Residence
As vast as the roof, so is the interior. A central corridor divides the house in two volumes, both oriented north-south. While the first contains a kitchen, a gym and service rooms, the other one houses five bedroom suites. A large living room is situated at a corner and can be completely opened by sliding glass doors, transforming the entire space into a terrace. The only curved element is a brick wall, which meander around the building and closes the property to the rear. Despite its building material, the wall seems permeable through voids between the bricks.
Outdated shopping mall transformed into new city center with world’s largest green roof in Cupertino, California
The Sand Hill Property Company plans a new city center in Cupertino in the Silicon Valley, California. The outdated Vallco Shopping Mall is about to become The Hills at Vallco. The 30-acre park will not only be the largest community green in Cupertino, but the world’s largest green roof. Before Rafael Viñoly Architects and OLIN Landscape Architects created the design, Sand Hill asked residents and entrepreneurs in several meetings about their ideas and dreams, almost 3.800 suggestions were collected.
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The design of the green roof is ambitious: a 3,8 mile track for walking and jogging, orchards and organic gardens, a vineyard, an amphitheater, children’s playgrounds and a refuge for native species of plants and birds. The greening will be adapted to the hot and dry climate of the area. The green roof is part of the energy concept of the complex and –combined with natural ventilation and smart technology – is to regulate the temperature in and around the buildings. Recently more and more projects –and even whole cities such as Paris – focus on roof and facade greening to cope with extreme temperatures.
Once a thriving spot in the city, the Vallco Shopping Mall has lost most of its tenants and costumers, over 50 percent of the building are empty. In 2014, Sand Hill bought the Mall and all of its 50 acres from the four owners. For the first time a unified vision is now possible. “We’ve done some research and we haven’t found a single shopping mall that’s started construction since 2006. This is clearly a dying model. That’s on display at Vallco”, says Reed Moulds, Managing Director of Sand Hill. The huge empty concrete massif is surrounded by the empty parking slots, totally lost in Cupertino. “I think there’s going to be a lot of opportunities to be very creative about how we reinvent our malls that aren’t used the way that they’ve been used in the past.”
The Hills will offer space for retail, restaurants, 800 accomodation units and entertainment plus venues for ice skating, bowling, sports and an AMC Theater. There will also be room for the whole life cycle of companies – from Start Up to established business – on more than 2 million square feet of office space.
Additionally to the project Sand Hill aims to change transport and education in Cupertino. Infrastructure is to be changed in favor of pedestrians and cyclists; residents will be able to use a shuttle-bus for free. A new elementary school and an innovation center will support children and teenagers in their development. The mixed-use innovation center will serve as a hub for work-based learning initiatives with workshops, room for exhibitions and robotics competitions.
The project is a 3 billion US-Dollar investment in the technologic heart of the United States. Cupertino is home to many advances in information and computer technologies, that changed everyday life forever. Computer company Apple is the most important employer for the 60.000 inhabitants, the construction of Apple Campus 2 will surely cement this fact. The Hills at Vallco will only profit from the development, as it will be located between Apple’s Infinite Loop headquarters and Apple Campus 2. Currently the project is in the official approval phase.
All visualizations: The Hills at Vallco.
