Nowadays, it’s all about greening the urban
environment. A peculiar way to do so, is by sticking an air-purifying garden on
top of a moving bus!
In our
current sustainability-driven society, people are more interested in making
their city greener. But these green areas are not always
available…
Marc Granen
found a solution to this spatial problem by conceiving the idea of a garden on
the rooftop of a public bus. The main idea is to convert existing spaces in the
city into green spaces. His mission is
to expand the garden area in urban environments, increase the absorption of CO2
and give public transport a new ecological and tourist attraction.
A side
benefit of these green rooftops is that they cause the temperature inside the
bus to decrease by 3.5 degrees Celsius, thus reducing the amount of fuel
necessary to run the air-conditioning.
The major
drawback of this idea is the fact that the garden on top of the bus
significantly increases the weight of the bus, thereby increasing the fuel
consumption. This additional weight also means that the bus can transport less
passengers, leading to more fuel consumption per passenger mile.
We believe
that these gardens are a fun idea and - let’s face it - they look awesome!
(Check out the video below) But we doubt that the benefits in terms of
absorption of CO2 will transcend the negative effects of additional fuel
consumption and exhaust of CO2.
Can you
imagine these buses driving around in Ghent?
Ann-Sophie, Hélène & Sofie
What a great idea! That reminds me of the thesis of a friend of mine, treating the concept of urban agriculture. The idea is simple: major cities such as Amsterdam, Ghent and Berlin are filled with exhaust gasses that endanger the health of the citizens in the long term. Therefore, architects build gardens located on the roofs of the cities’ buildings. Not only is it a magnificent view, but the gardens also help purifying the polluted air.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenUnfortunately, a myriad of possible approaches to urban agriculture and the dissension amongst the batch of actors prevent the sustainable development of Ghent. The master dissertation takes the first step to unblock the situation, providing a conceptual framework that contains three main axes: objectives, context and techniques. This framework helps drawing the attention to and organizing the problem.
If you are interested in urban agriculture, you can download the whole thesis – that was even eligible for receiving the Charles Vermeersch Thesis Awards 2013 – by clicking on the following link: http://www.scriptiebank.be/scriptie/urban-agriculture-context-ghent.