| Architecture Student Chronicles

Green Roofing Technology | Eco-friendly Roofs

January 4, 2017May 13, 2010 by Architect

A green roof is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane.

Green roofs usually do not involve construction of complex drainage and irrigation systems. The use of “green” refers to the growing trend of environmentally friendly and does not refer to roofs which are merely colored green, as with green roof tiles or roof shingles.

There are different ways in which green roofs are constructed. Container gardens on roofs is one of the type of green roof, where plants are maintained in pots, are not generally considered to be true green roofs, although this is an area of debate. Rooftop ponds are another form of green roofs which are used to treat greywater.

Chandigarh Rock Garden | Turning Trash into Treasure

December 21, 2011April 23, 2010 by Architect

Introduction

Chandigarh rock garden is an epitome of creativity and innovation. Rock Garden is a sculpture garden in Chandigarh, India, also known as Nek Chand’s Rock Garden. The speciality of this place is that it is completely built of industrial & home waste and thrown-away items.

Rock garden has been established in the form of an open-air exhibition hall.

Timeline

The Rock Garden was secretly started by Mr Nek Chand in 1957. The government only learnt about it in 1975. After it was discovered, the government took it over.

Dimensions

Initially, it occupied an area of 12 acres. But it has grown and is spread over an area of forty-acres (160,000 m²),

A New Dimension to Building Green Architecture

April 26, 2010February 28, 2010 by Architect

The Dynamic tower, the first building in motion, takes the concept of green buildings to the next level where it will generate electricity for itself as well as other nearby buildings, making it the first sky-scraper designed to be self-powered.

The building generates electricity from wind turbines mounted horizontally on each floor, this eighty storey building will have seventy nine wind turbines, making it a true green power plant.

Slums in Cities | Providing Low-Cost Housing to End Slums

December 25, 2013February 20, 2010 by Architect

What are Slums? How and where do slums develop?

In the last few decades, there had been a tremendous growth in emerging countries like India, Brazil, Mexico and China. This had been mainly due to a rapid expansion in the manufacturing sector. Thus, there has been a massive migration of workers to cities and production centers. These new workers cannot afford housing. This is what gives rise to slums, as the homeless make temporary shelters which get transformed rapidly into semi-permanent housing colonies. People migrate to cities because the comparative poverty and hardship involved in their alternatives (ie. subsistence farming) is worse.

According to UN-HABITAT, a slum is defined as a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. It is estimated that one billion humans live in shanty towns. One in every three people in the world will live in slums within 30 years unless governments control unprecedented urban growth, according to a UN report.