projects
Vers l’AVENIR URBAIN: BIOTOPE CITY
La biodiversité menacée et l’expansion croisante des villem- quoi faire? Considérer la ville elle-même comme une forme de nature et donner de l’espace à la nature sous ses diverses formes dans l’environnement construit. C’est ‘voir la ville comme un biotope’, Biotope City. Conclure un contrat social avec la nature !
The Invasion of Nature into the City
Integrating biodiverse nature into urban areas: What is possible? What is desirable? How does one do it? Does it even make sense? Rules of the game for citizens and professionals in planning, design and maintenance. Prof.Dr. Helga Fassbinder, Foundation Biotope City...
Fire protection with facade greening
Dr. Dieter Werner, Testing, Inspection and Certification Body of the City of Vienna, Head of the Building Physics Laboratory Is facade greening a fire hazard? The City of Vienna has been investigating the fire behavior of facade greening since 2015. In the meantime,...
Rooftop Community Gardens
Webinar Tuesday, September 12, 2023, 17.00 hrs The "Gartenwerkstatt" is Europe's largest community rooftop garden. It is located on the roof of a municipal high-rise garage and has about 50 members who have organized themselves as an association. It is a project worth...
Birds crashing into buildings: The invisible death and how it can be prevented
Lecture by Bendedikt Heger, 13.6., 17 h Every year, hundreds of thousands of birds die in collisions with glass panes in Austria alone. B.Sc, M.sc. Benedikt Heger from the Vienna Environmental Advocacy's Office explains why this is so, where the danger is particularly...
World Congress on Green Buildings 2023
The World Congress on Green Buildings 2023 in Berlin and online is a three-day event on all aspects of green buildings (roof, façade and interior greening) with the associated topics (including urban climate, rainwater management, sustainability, city of the...
Urban industrial areas as ecological potential
by dr. ir. Robbert Snep, Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands On the youtube canal of BIOTOPE CITY JOURNAL : https://www.youtube.com/@biotopecityjournal8524 At a rapid pace, we are still sealing huge areas of land every day - in Austria, this amounted to...
Current findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Lecture by Dr. Guido Halbig, IPCC and Deutscher Wetterdienst It gets hotter and drier in the cities - often in summer hardly bearable. At the same time, localized, extreme precipitation is increasing. Do we definitely have to prepare ourselves for this fact? As the...
Wildlife in The City
The green toad, the field hamster and the alpine bat, many species live next to us in the city. One man's joy, another man's sorrow? How and why is a rich nature in the city so important on a small and large scale? What opportunities are there for people to...
Greening the city – the utopian reality ?
Interview with Helga Fassbinder, emeritus professor at University of Technology and University of Technology Hamburg about the concept of Biotope City and its realization in Vienna, Austria
Green infrastructure as an integrative constituent and prerequisite of urban development
Is there a way to design and implement a customised green infrastructure for new settlement expansions? This article shows how a multifunctional and interdisciplinary planning approach can be used to develop a new settlement area in the city of St.Pölten called “Eisberg” despite climate change.
Greening Facades – A Historical Introduction
Greening buildings has a long tradition and has been practiced for thousands of years: it has many advantages – not only aesthetically, but also in terms of its effects on the environment and health. Recently, it has experienced a revival due to climate change.
CLIMATE CHANGE and GENDER
The lecture is now online on our youtube channel ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxCE5njoksg The effects of climate change are not felt equally by everyone. Women, and particularly women from the Global South, are disproportionately affected by climate change and...
Sociocratic Neighbourhood Circles SoNeC
SoNeC is a 26 month-long Erasmus+ project including Biotope City. It is funded by the EU’s “KA2 Strategic Partnerships for adult education” program and addresses serious social and environmental issues by applying neighborhood-based, bottom-up, participatory and inclusive decision making processes.
New lecture series on urgent issues of the dense city as nature.
Climate change and the energy transition have made many questions of the dense city as nature urgently explosive. What are the solutions? How do we broadly implement already existing solution? How do we reach investors, citizens, politicians? A new series of...
First forest tower in social housing – planted in the Netherlands
Largely unnoticed by the experts, a special feature in the field of housing stands in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, a city of about 250,000 inhabitants: a Dutch 'Bosco vertical' - but not for rich residents, like the world-famous building in Milan, but a Bosco vertical...
The example of Biotope City Wienerberg: The green city at the crossroad of disciplines, investors and authorities
Contribution to the Conference of the Deutscher Werkbund Berlin on 'New Social Housing', May 2022 As architects and urban planners we design and build products that should still fulfil their function for at least 100 years. Of course, we cannot give an idea of the...
Growing Green Cities Conference: long term thinking in a short termin world
How to think long term in a short term world, for growing green cities?We seldom take time to discuss this question, but in this conference we do! You can register at: https://lnkd.in/eKs3gThU With speakers like Minister de Jonge, Derk Loorbach, Barbara...
The Relationship between City and Nature in History
by Inken Baller. Greening architecture and urban development is part of the long tradition of making cities livable and healthy. A look into history up to the recent past.
Photovoltaic Plantscapes
It is a generally accepted requirement that green buildings combined with photovoltaic (PV) energy generation should be increasingly used in cities. However, photovoltaics, the necessary substructure and greening structure must be carefully coordinated. The aim of...
The Hidden Treasures of the Biotope City Wienerberg at Vienna
The Biotope City neighborhood in Vienna is attracting a lot of attention, visits and tours are the order of the day. But most of the sustainable and climate-efficient features are not easily or not at all visible. They are 'hidden treasures'. In order to track them...
Symposium ‘The climate-resilient, green, nature-inclusive city’ – all contributions online !
The 10 most important elements that make up a climate-resilient, green, nature-inclusive city: State of the art. This year saw the completion of Biotope City Wienerberg, a climate-resilient, green, nature-inclusive neighbourhood. The project received the international...
What does biodiversity cost the taxpayer?
Unaffordable, especially now in view of the pandemic’s national debt? Christoph Küffer calculates the costs against the profits using Switzerland as an example.
THE ISLAND OF THE WILD VIENNESE
An uninhabited island in the middle of the big city, where deer and beavers live, where grey herons and cormorants find rich fishing grounds, where marsupial tits build their elaborate nests? A romantic dream? Inner-city nature reserves or fallow land are under high...
Sferen / Atmospheres – Sculpture exhibition
Night-birds, riverbeds, Japanese knotweed and the source of the Mississippi… With their work, the six artists of Sferen make the viewer aware of his relationship with the natural and urban environment.
Urban Mining Technical Soils for Biotope Cities
Pia Minixhofer, Bernhard Scharf, Sebastian Hafner, Thomas Romm Growing cities In the coming years, more and more people will live and work in cities (UN 2018). The accompanying need for more housing and infrastructure is causing construction activity to increase....
Manifesto “BUILDING FOR NATURE” by environmental organisations and the largest construction companies in the Netherlands
"Nature measures must become an obligatory part of housing construction, according to the postulate of nature and environmental organisations and the largest construction companies in the Netherlands. They want nature to become a "natural component" of all new...
10 Theses on the sustainable, climate-friendly City of the Future
Climate change is on everyone's lips. At first glance, today's climate change, beginning with industrialisation in the 19th century, is a local / regional / Earth-wide increase in temperature and weather extremes. But more and more people feel that serious changes are...
The Biotope City Quartier Wienerberg – what is so special with it?
Biotope City Wienerberg is a neighbourhood that has broken new ground in many areas. In this it is part of the great tradition of Viennese housing construction, which for 100 years has repeatedly gone far beyond what was common practice in housing construction at the...
Greener track and surroundings
https: www.spoorbeeld.nl NS, ProRail and Bureau Spoorbouwmeester Netherlands have plans to make the stations and their surroundings greener. Bureau Bosch Slabbers Landscape Architects has produced a handbook "New Handbook for...
SPACE – TIME
Presentation Colette van Landuyt - second participant in QuoVadis? 2222 Summary: The break between space and time in Western culture resulted in a radical break with nature. Nature is not sensitive to ideologies; it does for its effects. GAIA rebels through...
BIOTOPE CITY WIENERBERG – a Biotope City for Vienna
In Vienna, a ‘Biotope City’ district is currently under construction. A neighborhood based on the principles of Biotope City: the realization of a dense urban neighborhood as nature in a close juxtaposition…
A recyclable space-time ratio
This essay by Gilles Clement, the famous french paysagist is written 10 years ago – today his urgency is increased only! Recommanded by the editors.
50 years ARCH+
by Helga Fassbinder. Formerly a critical magazin.What function does it fulfil today? Are the major challenges of the future – climate change, loss of biodiversity, scarcity of resources – reflected in terms of construction and planning?
Housing in a climate emergency
An affordable, climate-efficient measure, which could be implemented immediately. By Helga Fassbinder
Michael Sorkin 1948-2020
On March 26, 2020, architect and publicist Michael Sorkin died after being infected with the corona virus. Sorkin was a warm advocate of “green urbanism”.
Mercator Swimming pool Amsterdam
10 Years ago: By protest of the neighbourhood the swimming pool in a inner city park of Amsterdam could only been built completely covered by green. Architect VenhoevenCS, green architekt Patrick Blanc
Biotope City – The dense City as Nature
What does this mean? Is this a real option? Helga Fassbinder shows yes, and there will beno escape from this concept…
Biotope City Symposium Eindhoven
Organized by Foundation Biotope City, Architectuurcentrum Eindhoven, Eindhoven University of Technology and Eindhoven municipality.
The Symposium, originally planned May 15, 2020, will take place later this year at Eindhoven. We hope to be able to announce the new date soon !
Invisible Treasures of a Biotope City
The Biotope City Wienerberg contains many qualities that will not be immediately visible after completion at the end of 2020. Now IBA Vienna has published the broschure “Hidden Treasures”, which describes the hidden treasures of this forward-looking green district.
IT-gesteuerte Planung von Natur in der dichten Stadt
Können die Effekte von Grünbewuchs in der dichten Stadt exakt bereits im Planungsstadium prognostiziert werden? Ja! Bernhard Scharf stellt die Greenpass-Methode vor, die bereits erfolgreich praktisch angewandt wird.
REGE
Wie mache ich Bürgern klar, wie wichtig die verschiedenen Möglichkeiten von Regenwasser-Rückhaltung durch Begrünen sind? Prof. Daniel Roer, University of British Columbia,Vancouver, stellt eine Methode vor.
THE HIGH LINE NEW YORK – ONCE AN OASIS, NOW A THEME PARK
Click on images to enlarge "...The High Line was originally constructed in the 1930s, to lift dangerous freight trains off Manhattan's streets... Friends of the High Line (founded by Joshua David and Robert Hammond, residents of the High Line neighborhood,...
KRISE FINDET STADT
Die KUPFzeitung ist das kulturpolitische Magazin der Kulturplattform OÖ. Sie ist ein zentrales Medium des Kulturdiskurses in Oberösterreich.
![[:de]Tagung ‘BIOTOPE CITY – DIE DICHTE STADT ALS NATUR’ 4.10.19 Berlin](https://biotope-city.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Tagung_Berlin_41019-400x250.jpg)
[:de]Tagung ‘BIOTOPE CITY – DIE DICHTE STADT ALS NATUR’ 4.10.19 Berlin
Veranstaltet durch das Center for Metropolitan Studies der TU Berlin, den Deutschen Werkbund Berlin und die Stiftung Biotope City
GLOBAL MATERIAL RESOURCES OUTLOOK TO 2060
In Sept.2019 the OECD has published a report about the use of material ressources in 2060 compared with 2017
![[:de]Je grüner desto kühler](https://biotope-city.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/46-148298800-400x250.jpg)
[:de]Je grüner desto kühler
Die österreichische Tageszeitung KURIER berichtet am 1.9.2019 über die Biotope city Wienerberg und ihren Kühlungseffekt mittels Begrünung
THE BIOTOPE CITY WIENERBERG
A BIOTOPE-CITY-QUARTIER FOR VIENNA Helga Fassbinder In Vienna, a 'Biotope City' district is currently under construction. A neighborhood based on the principles of Biotope City: the realization of a dense urban neighborhood as nature in a close juxtaposition with...
Urban Farming by the City of Vienna
Urban farming for climate change mitigation Press Service of the City of Vienna Mayor Ludwig and City Councillor Sima: Active against climate change with vegetables from ViennaVienna pensioners' homes enjoy organic potatoes from Vienna - new logistics save...
Nuthe settlement in Potsdam – a photo stream
A picture gallery of the Nuthe settlement in short form
pioneer ot hoffmann
Ein Gebäude mitten in der Stadt, bewachsen mit Bäumen auf allen Etagen, gebaut schon in den 70er Jahren, lange vor dem Mailänder Bosco Vertikale. Ein Interview mit dem Architekten
WORLD CONGRESS OF BUILDING GREENING 2020
Congress of roof, façade and interior greeningThe Federal Association Building Green e. V. (BuGG) as organizer and organizer of the World Congress Building Green 2020 is an association of scientists, planners, executives, producers, countries / cities and...
A CHARTER FOR THE BERLIN TOWN GREEN
Vom 14. Mai 2019 bis zum 11. Juni 2019 fand die zweite Online-Beteiligungsphase zur Charta für das Berliner Stadtgrün statt. Sie ist nun abgeschlossen. Das Verfahren geht weiter.
Ecology and a forest tower
Eine Erkundung des Trudo-Waldturms durch Harrie van Helmond, Architekt und Mitglied von Biotope-City, Jannie Landa, aktiver Stadtgrüner und Mitglied von IVN Eindhoven und Tom van Duuren, Forstdirektor und Mitglied von Wilde Weelde, Abteilung für natürliche Umwelt.
Biotope City – the Gardencity of the 21thCentury
Wie können wir den Lebensraum des Menschen so einrichten und regulieren, dass er in einem Zusammenspiel mit anderen Arten von Leben seine Lebenszeit so gut und gesund wie möglich verbringen kann? Es gilt, die guten Ideen der Gartenstadt zu übersetzen auf die Situation des 21.Jhds.
– Helga Fassbinder –
GREEN EMOTION …. DREAM AND REALITY OF MAD. Ma Yansong and his philosophy about city and nature
Der chinesische Architekt geht nicht aus von einem ‘nachhaltigen’ oder ökologischen’ Naturbezug, sondern von einer Haltung, die sich mit der Natur verbindet.
– Harrie van Helmond e.a. –
THE FRENCH BALCONY: FLOWER TOWER, PARIS, ARCHITECT EDUARD FRANÇOIS
[:nl]Een bijzondere vorm van ‘greening’ – weliswaar ecologisch niet helemaal correct, maar wel ook in de winter groen en makkelijk voorzien van automatisch water.
– Harry van Helmond –
Ecology and Madness
‘Ökologie und Wahnsinn’ – ein Symposium auf Burg Hülshoff am 13.Sept.19 im Rahmen des Festivals ‘Natur am Bau’
The Vienna Biotope City in the Press
The Vienna Biotope City in the Press In the Austrian daily newspaper DER STANDARD an article about the Biotope City in Vienna is published in March 2019. Woichiech Czaja emphazises the stimulating effect of green on people’s mind and adds by this another argument to...
![[:de]Rot als Grün[:fr]ROUGE EN TANT QUE VERT – LA VILLE COMME NATURE](https://biotope-city.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/dsc01757-900x675-400x250.jpg)
[:de]Rot als Grün[:fr]ROUGE EN TANT QUE VERT – LA VILLE COMME NATURE
THE CITY AS A ROCKY LANDSCAPE
The new island Surtsey and the new business district Zuidas of Amsterdam… a revealing comparison
– by Helga Fassbinder –
DAS IDEAL
Ein berühmtes Gedicht von Kurt Tucholsky – treffender den je !
FROM URBAN GREEN TO GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY – Harry Glück and his green residential complexes
An architect with a vision on green urban living already form the 70ths – now fullfilled as an urban concept in the Biotope City Wienerber, his last work. By Helga Fassbinder
To grow a fence, a bench, a town!
To grow a fence, a bench, a town! An interview with Bob Radstake Leora Rosner When Bob Radstake returned from a trip to Australia he realised how much he missed seeing nature within urban areas. As he states, “I was walking along the street when the idea just fell...
Amsterdam City Hall roof planted
Amsterdam City Hall roof planted Leora Rosner Due to the tenacity of one person a seed was planted and nurtured until it grew and began to blossom. The story of planting the roof of the City Hall of Amsterdam (the Stopera) began in April of 2007 when a letter was sent...
Wild or not: which do you prefer?
Wild or not: which do you prefer? Leora Rosner Wild gardens in our steel, glass and brick jungles offer a softer view. Placed along facades where one would generally never see a garden, because of lack of interest, wild gardens would help create a greener...
A BIOTOPE CITY QUARTIER FOR VIENNA
In Vienna, a ‘Biotope City’ district is currently under construction. A neighborhood based on the principles of Biotope City: the realization of a dense urban neighborhood as nature in a close juxtaposition with human, their homes, nearby shops, school, kindergarten, and species of flora and fauna, each with their own, closely interlinked sphere of life.
A Wall in the Change of Seasons
A Wall in the Change of Seasons Irene Zluwa The contribution of Irene Zluwa is the result of a study of plants that have a good chance of surviving wall greening. This is certainly interesting for those who want to realize greening the grey house...
IBA VIENNA: Biotope City Wienerberg gets IBA candidate status
IBA VIENNA: Biotope City Wienerberg gets IBA candidate status Author: Biotope City Journal: Vienna is planning an International Building Exhibition for the year 2022. It aims at developing proposals for future oriented solutions and approaches that are on the level of...
![[:de]Stadt lebenswert gestalten – Bürgerschaftssinn und Unternehmergeist](https://biotope-city.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Rue-Aboukir-vorher-400x250.jpg)
[:de]Stadt lebenswert gestalten – Bürgerschaftssinn und Unternehmergeist
Für eine lebenswerte Stadt bedarf es einer aktiven Zivilgesellschaft in Symbiose mit Flora und Fauna, moderiert durch die Politik
– Helga Fassbinder –
es ist nicht alles grün das wächst
es ist nicht alles grün das wächst Iris-a-Maz Video: Iris-a-Maz
THE PIONEERS OF URBAN GREEN: HARRY GLÜCK
He is the grand old man of the Austrian social housing architecture, famous for Alterlaa, mass housing high-rise buildings, without any problems, but only highly satisfied tenants. By Helga Fassbinder
FREI OTTO: HOUSES IN THE TREE – BERLIN 1987
FREI OTTO: HOUSES IN THE TREE - BERLIN 1987 Director, camera, Editor: Beate LendtProduction: Gerald Lindner & Beate LendtMusic and sound: Vladimir Rakic Film: House in the tree (trailer) http://architekturclips.de/treehouse Living in a tree...
A COMMUNITY GARDEN…. ON THE ROOFTOP OF A SCHOOL
A COMMUNITY GARDEN.... ON THE ROOFTOP OF A SCHOOL Editors Biotope City Journal Paris: A community garden as a green injection on the rooftop of a school - now 3 years later: Since several years the city of Paris makes great efforts to improve the air...
THE CITY AS NATURE: PROGRAMMING A U-TURN IN ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING
THE CITY AS NATURE: PROGRAMMING A U-TURN IN ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING Helga Fassbinder Lecture at Movium, Swedish Landscape University, Alnarp, Conference 'Livet i staden 2012', 26.jan.2012 Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands surprised...
I am the city
I am the city Leora Rosner I am the city Stone, brick, mortar, steel and glass My arteries are the streets The sidewalks my veins My people are the muscles Of my perambulations My breath is short and strained and I am feverish I am the city Nigh...
URBAN FARMING & BUREAUS: ‘Zuidpark’ in Amsterdam
URBAN FARMING & BUREAUS: 'Zuidpark' in Amsterdam - The largest vegetable roof of Europe - the results of one year experience Helga Fassbinder Urban farming is in! In addition to tomatoes and lettuce on balconies and rooftops,...
WILDLIFE IN THE CITY
The formula “The City as Nature” asks for a definition how one understands by nature. Where to start? Where does it belong? The question is explosive, especially among biologists but also among ordinary people: when nature has to be saved: which one? The nature in the state of hundred years ago?
WILDLIFE IN THE CITY
WILDPARK CITY Helga Fassbinder The formula “The City as Nature” asks for a definition how one understands by nature. Where to start? Where does it belong? The question is explosive, especially among biologists but also among ordinary people: when nature has...
In memoriam HARRY GLÜCK – an obit
The renowned Viennese architect Harry Glück died on 13.12.2016. He was one of the great pioneers of green architecture in the dense city.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEN
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEN Statement at Alpbach Built Environment Symposium 31.8.-1.9.2012 "Creating Living Spaces - How will we live in the future" Helga Fassbinder We are living in a time of fundamental changes. In building too, it seems as if we...
HOMO URBANUS – the man of the urban future
HOMO URBANUS - the man of the urban future Jelle Reumer ‘The environment selects’ is a well-known Darwinist paradigm. The idea also holds water when the environment changes, in which case the changed environment selects. An environment without...
BLATTGRÜN EFFIZIENT+KOSTENGÜNSTIG IM KAMPF GEGEN KLIMAWANDEL
THE LOWLINE AIMS HIGH
Click on images to enlarge them. They will appear in a new tab. After years of planning, another ambitious project rivaling the Highline in all its aspects, both good and bad – is being realized in New York City. It is called the Lowline and is located in Manhattan’s...
LIVING ROOFS – A catalyst for building communities
LIVING ROOFS – A catalyst for building communities Charlie Green, Jane Riddiford 1. Introduction This article is based what we have been discovering through the development of a Living Roof on top of an office building in Kings Cross, Central London. The project has...
URBAN COOTS
URBAN COOTS - URBANE BLESSHÜHNER - FOULQUES URBAINES - WATERHOENTJES Sema Bekiroviç In the canals of Amsterdam they are often to be seen: coot that fourage on the caddis walls, build their nests and hatch their eggs and then swim through the water with...
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