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Christian Werthmann Associate Professor and Program Director Department of Landscape Architecture |
Publications
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Green Roof-A Case Study.
Empty rooftops are the largest unused open space resource in the US; they take up to 30% of potential open space in densely urbanized areas. Recently there has been a strong movement in the US to use these roofs for more than just utilitarian equipment. Green roofs, well known in Europe, are now increasingly built in North America. They promise an array of benefits: longer roof life spans, better sound insulation, reduced indoor heating and cooling needs, and decreased storm water runoff. Vegetation on green roofs cuts down carbon dioxide and binds with dust particles, meanwhile cooling the roof surface and alleviating the "urban heat island effect." In short, green roofs are the great green hope of many environmentalists, politicians, and architects interested in more efficient and environmentally sound buildings. There is currently a compendium of publications about green roofs that mostly stress the environmental benefits of the technology. The book Green Roof: A Case Study looks beyond the environmental towards the mental. The potential of green roofs to serve basic human needs is examined in a discussion of the new roof built upon the ASLA headquarters in Washington DC, designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. This roof combines features of traditional roof gardens (accessible and enjoyable) with typical attributes of green roofs (lightweight and low maintenance). The "Green Roof Hybrid" is introduced as a model for the future city that argues the importance of social next to ecological elements in roof design. This model asserts that urban green infrastructure must progress from basic environmental problem solving to improving the mental and physical health of the urban dweller. This step is not necessary for moral reasons; it actually is important for the economic survival of whole regions. Mental health is the key factor for the long-term productivity of information based economies; accessible green roofs can contribute to that as a workplace amenity. They offer fantastic spaces of relaxation and contemplation thereby easing the stress of urban living and working. Regions with joyful green infrastructure will and already have the competitive advantage.
TransUrban. Charting Experiments for Cities of the Future.
TransUrban is an ambitious project that attempts to chart design ideas, ideals, and processes of recent and current experiments for cities of the future. TransUrban examines the idea of sustainable cities beyond the environmental and ecological aspects by documenting and analyzing emergent forms of urbanism and extracting lessons that may shape cities to come. These built experiments embody complex topics of design, dwelling, community in space, building technologies, environmental strategies, as well as models of affordability, while exploring new trajectories in the development of the city. Topographies of change re-contour the forms of urbanism as we know it, and do not conform to generic typologies, but create in concert a shift of paradigms. The patterns that emerge reveal complexity and integrated thinking across disciplines. TransUrban charts this terrain to find applicable design strategies for the future. The book TransUrban. Charting Experiments for Cities of the Future. Case study 01: Vauban is a compilation of the first case study performed by the TransUrban research group. Vauban is a new major development of a sustainable city district comprising 38-hectare former barracks site near the town center of Freiburg in Germany that was purchased by the city in 1994 with the goal of converting it into a flagship environmental and social project. Vauban comprises 2,000 homes to house 5,000 people as well as business units to provide about 500-600 jobs. The project is currently nearing completion and is widely seen as one of the most positive examples in Europe of environmental thinking in relation to urban design. The TransUrban research group compared the guiding principles of urbanism in Vauban with the built product. Extracting the particular strengths and weaknesses of this case, conclusions are drawn for future sustainable developments with similar ambitions.
An Alternative Future for the Landscapes of Castilla-La Mancha
The book is the result of a semester-long studio about the future of a
200km by 70km corridor in the autonomous region of Castilla-La Mancha,
the heart of Spain. It was produced by twelve students from the masters and
postgraduate programs of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University
under the oversight of the class instructors Professors Carl Steinitz and
Christian Werthmann.
At this significant point in time, the study An Alternative Future for the Landscapes of Castilla-La Mancha examines a corridor of land uses that offers a representative range of urbanization phenomena currently occurring in the region. Beginning in the north at the outskirts of Madrid, the corridor extends past the historic former capital city of Spain, Toledo, to the south at Ciudad Real, comprising a total area of about 14,000 square kilometers. Projecting land use shifts along a twenty year horizon, the study includes a vision for an alternative future for the region that proposes both policies and designs and offers site specific solutions for particular significant locales within the corridor.
Participating Students Teaching Fellow
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