Green Walls

If you think these bricks look so simple even a robot could build a house with them, you'd be right. Plaex, the startup behind them, sees an automated construction industry in our near future, where materials will adapt to suit a new robotic workforce.

Temperatures around the world are on the rise, with 2023 recently confirmed as the hottest since records began. A new study has found that bringing nature into cities could help lower temperatures during heatwaves.

Italian design firm Benetti Home has introduced its distinctive green walls made from stabilized lichen to the interior spaces of Sky Valet's network of Fixed-Base Operators located in Europe, to enhance the well-being of weary travelers.

Squeezed between two existing structures, Cabrera Building measures just four meters wide and 27 meters high, offering a blank canvas to transform a once inhabitable space into a fresh contemporary home and office.

A significant amount of greenery is headed to inner-city Dallas, Texas, in the form of a new high-rise that will boast North America's tallest living wall. The building will rise to a height of 320 ft (97.5 m) and feature 40,000 plants.

Sky Green, designed by WOHA and located in Taichung, Taiwan, features a large amount of trees and plants, and offers occupants the use of terrace areas that are envisioned as a pleasant escape from the bustle of city life.

Starchitect Daniel Libeskind's firm has unveiled an unusual new mixed-use skyscraper for Toulouse, France, that features a glazed facade broken up by greenery. Construction on the Occitanie Tower is due to begin in 2018 and completion is expected in 2022.

Cities everywhere are undergoing somewhat of a green renaissance, with public spaces and linear parks being built around existing infrastructure and buildings. In Düsseldorf, Germany, however, the buildings themselves are being greened, with hedged façades and a green roof that forms a park.

A new residential community in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, will be raised high above the street and wrapped in a huge living wall. Designed by MAD Architects, 8600 Wilshire will also feature a lush hidden garden for its residents. MAD says it will coalesce nature and community.

Spain is now the home of a huge vertical garden covering 1492m². Adorning the the Palacio de Congresos Europa (Palace of Congresses Europe), the garden designed by Alicante-based sustainable architecture firm Urbanarbolismo incorporates over 33,000 individual plants.

Why do power stations always look like power stations? That's the tacit question behind AZPA's proposal for a new gas power station in Wedel, Germany, which it envisages as a "green mountain" of topiary.