More energy efficient buildings

Edible Landscaping

 Edible Landscaping

Explore how to best maintain existing areas of edible urban greenery - and integrate new ones - into the area, as well as how these green spaces can be used to connect the existing neighbours with the new ones by providing spaces for community gardening, togetherness and knowledge exchange.

INVENTORY OF NATURE-BASED INNOVATIONS

Inventory of nature-based innovations

The Erasmus+ project „Nature-Based Innovations for Urban Forest and Rainwater Management” supports communities and local authorities in combating climate change through the identification of good practices and the dissemination of innovative solutions and manuals addressed to local authorities, stakeholders, and associations to improve policies and practices to  counter climate change from an environmental, social, and economic point of view.

Ecuador: INNOQUA demo site in Quito

INNOQUA is a four-year EU-funded Horizon 2020 project. Bringing expertise from multiple disciplines, the 20 project partners are seeking to demonstrate a novel, modular system for wastewater treatment based on the purifying capacity of earthworms, zooplankton and microalgae, operating under real conditions.

Due to its modular configuration, the INNOQUA system can address multiple aspects of wastewater treatment and water re-use in water stressed communities, rapidly expanding cities and industries – both in developed and developing countries. The decentralised approach helps to...

Alcaldía de Medellín - Green Corridors Initiative

Medellín, like many other cities, faces rising temperatures, worsened by the urban heat island effect—concrete and tarmac absorbing the sun’s power, radiating it out as heat and keeping the city warm long after the sun has gone down. It doesn’t have to be that way, as Colombia’s second-largest city, Medellín, is showing by embracing nature-based solutions.

With the Green Corridor project, which won the 2019 Ashden Award for Cooling by Nature Award, supported by the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program and in partnership with Sustainable Energy for All, Medellín’s city authorities...

Integrated green grey infrastructure (IGGI) - Green screen guard rail.

Air quality in urban areas is a known issue for health and quality of life. Motorised vehicles produce a range of pollutants that can affect human health. These include very small particles emitted from exhaust (especially from diesel-fuelled vehicles), and from wear-and-tear on brakes and tyres. If inhaled these particles can cause a range of both short-term and more chronic health problems, including increased chances of death from respiratory and cardiovascular disease. This Particulate Matter (PM) is measured in microns (one micron is one millionth of a metre). Health concerns start...

Saida School - Ecological and Participatory Approach in a School Refurbishment

Eco-School Saida Entrance
  • Develop a school refurbishment in an ecological and participatory approach
  • Contribute to the sustainable development of the well-being of children and educational community

Implementation of an ecological building (low-energy building) favorable for biodiversity, partial impervious pavement release, green spaces and vegetable gardens creation. This project is also notable for children and educational community consultation in its conception, making them as full stakeholders. The design reinforces the ecological networks at the...

"Séqué" Eco-District Building (Bayone City)

"Séqué" Eco-District - Architect view
  • Construction of an eco-district with ecological networks and biodiversity as starting point

Design and construction of an eco-district with the ecological networks and biodiversity as starting point. The implementation of this project is based on environmental approach to urban planning. The district is an environmentally-friendly project and favors collective housing to preserve green areas.

This NbS is also combined with other environmental friendly solutions: Bio-sourced materials - Renewable energy system (solar panels, etc.).

Green Roof of Aimé Césaire School Complex

Aimé Césaire Primary School: A Garden Home (Source: urbannext.net/aime-cesaire-primary-school)

In 2013, an experimental and educational project, conceived as a garden home for a school, was built at the heart of the green district known as ‘Duke’s Meadow’ on the Île de Nantes. The building’s roof was covered by 2,700 square meters of natural dunes.

The objective is to create a green roof, relying heavily on a phytosociological approach to plant colonization and high biodiversity, but also a site that is easy to manage.

The originality of its green roof results from a co-construction between architects and landscape designer. Its qualities are undeniable, and this...