The energy of the green: Green facades and vertical farm as dynamic envelope for resilient building

Abstract

The paper shares the results of a design submitted to a competition launched by the University of Wageningen, focusing on the retrofitting action of one of the existing towers of the former Bijlmerbajes prison complex in Amsterdam. The effort of an interdisciplinary team was oriented to demonstrating that it is possible to imagine the architectonic environment as a living organism, being part of the new food production chain, sponsoring zero kilometer products and increasing buildings' sustainable comfort while reducing their energy consumptions. Promoting a healthy lifestyle, an awareness of how to environmentally friendly behave and keeping the ecological footprint as low as possible were the main goals we wanted to achieve with our retrofitting and regenerative proposal of the GreenTower.