May 8 - 12, 2012 -Leipzig, Germany

15th European Forum on Urban Forestry
''Urban Forests - Ecosystem Services and
Sustainable Management" 

The congress will also reflect current activities at a european and global scale including the development of the EU’s Green Infrastructure Programme and the UN’s Nagoya statement on Urban Biodiversity in this the UN’s Decade of Biodiversity.

The 2012 World Green Roof Congress in Copenhagen will bring together leading architects, designers and practitioners form around the globe to highlight the need to green the Urban Grey to green.
Copenhagen’s Green Roof Policy will provide a unique opportunity for architects, master planners and urban designers to understand the opportunities and challenges of greening cities through the use of green roof technologies. This will become increasingly important throughout the world as the 21st century is the century of the mega-city.

Cities are generally dry, hot, polluted and, with climate change, increasingly affected by excessive Urban Heat Island and flash flooding. Green roofs are already recognised in many cities of the world as an important mechanism to help cities adapt to climate change and provide environmental health to urban areas.

The congress will focus on:

- Exemplar architectural design and green roofs
- Green and ecosystem services urban and master planning
- Integrated habitat design in the urban realm
- Latest research into economic and technical issues relating to green roofs
- Urban agriculture at roof level
- Biodiversity and green roofs
 

Green roof at the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore

This 5 story building sweeps a wooded corner of the campus with an organic, vegetated form that blends landscape and structure, nature and high-tech and symbolizes the creativity it houses. The curving green roofs distinguish the building from among the other structures on campus but the line between landscape and building is blurred. The roofs serve as informal gathering spaces challenging linear ideas and stirring perception. The roofs create open space, insulate the building, cool the surrounding air and harvest rainwater for landscaping irrigation. Planted grasses mix with native greenery to colonize the building and bond it to the setting.

Marente Bloemheuvel 
and 
Zsa Zsa Eyck [red.]

Hiryczuk / Van Oevelen  - Landfall
 

This is a publication about Landfall, a large scale project in the public space of Amsterdam Zuidas and was commissioned by the Virtuall Museum Zuidas. 
Including essays by Tom Conley, Gilles Deleuze, Helga Fassbinder, Mark Kremer and Hiryczuk / Van Oevelen. 
Graphic design: Niels Schrader; 160 pages in full color ; format: 17 x 25,5 cm; English/Dutch; 
edited by Jap Sam Books

For more information: → www.japsambooks.nl 

Amsterdam

text on the poster:

"If the climate had been a bank, it would have already been saved".

Water evaporated from trees cools global climate

Scientists have long debated about the impact of global climate on water evaporation from vegetation. New research from Carnegie’s Global Ecology department concludes that evaporated water helps cool the earth as a whole, not just the local area of evaporation, demonstrating that evaporation of water from trees and lakes could have a cooling effect on the entire atmosphere. These findings, recently published by the Carnegie Institution for Science, have major implications for urban planning. Trees in Cities cover both: the battle against urban heath and global warming. read more here >  See also this page about effects of urban trees here >

"Die Natur imitieren".

Interview
mit dem malayisischen
Architekten
Ken Yeang

erschienen in der österreichischen Tageszeitung Der Standard 
und zu finden auf einer site von
nextroom:

 http://www.nextroom.at/article.php?id=35026

Vertical Gardens
by Patrick Blanc

...an inspiring site

...but do not forget the value of a simple way of greening the city. The most exiting greening can be found at old fire walls, as for instance Henze Boekhout did in his photo-research on urban green in Paris... click here

...have a look at the world of urban farming:
Urban Farming Berlin – Urban Farming Hamburg – Guerilla Gardening Munich – Green Guerilla New York – Communitygarden New York – Guerilla Gardening Netherlands – Guerilla Gardening UK – Bruxelles Farmers – Guerilla Gardening Italy – Guerilla Gardening Belgium – mobile Garden –  –City Farmer Vancouver – Urban Agriculture on Wikipedia – Edible Schoolyard, California – Edible Rotterdam – Spinfarming – Vertical Farm

URBANIAHOEVE Social Design Lab for Urban Agriculture

URBANIAHOEVE Social Design Lab for Urban Agriculture develops models for urban food production by means of social design.

URBANIAHOEVE is a think-tank for urban agriculture that produces food-system infrastructure and is a platform for developing expertise. URBANIAHOEVE stimulates both the change in mentality and the skill set necessary for us city dwellers to become increasingly responsible for our own food production.

Photos: Stroom Den Haag and Mariken Straat

Vienna: no space for green? all parking spaces occupied by cars? The solution of the green guerilleros in Vienna: the mobile garden by bike...

Fallopia japonica -  a video by iris-a maz

The indoor-biotope :

Green is in... even indoor designers use the hint in the 
Urban Biotope - here the 'biotope' of famous german designer Ingo Maurer - although it is fake it looks nice:
http://athoughtfuleye.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/ingo-maurer-biotope/

Park Meerland, Eindhoven

gets the
Dirk Roosenburg-Award 2011

Fachvereinigung für Bauwerksbegrünung.