h a l f b a k e r ynon-lame halfbakery tagline
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But it wouldn't have those crappy little
sprouts. First, take a skyscraper and
make
horizontal trenches that are angled down
and into the building about three
centimetres deep and three centimetres
tall all across the concrete all the way up
(except for windows, obviously) three
centimetres
apart. fill all the
trenches with a little plant food and cut
strips of sod to stuff in there as well. use
those window washing rigs if necessary.
result: a vertical lawn on the sides of an
office building. It could even have little
sweat hoses running up and down the
building to prevent the grass from dying out.
At this point many of you are probably
wondering "well, it's neat and all, but
why?" beleive it or not, I have a reason.
Air purity. More plants in a downtown
core
would help filter pollutants from the air,
But trees and lawns don't always fit on
narrow streets, and lots of them die from
being poisoned by the air. If there were
enough plants, this wouldn't happen, but
there still isn't enough room unless you
think vertically. plus, green office
buildings would look cool. you could also
design the trenches to spell out company
logos and stuff. You could even paint the
grass for temporary advertising. I'd
include something
about the greenhouse effect, but a bunch
of sod just isn't gonna fix that.
Chia Skyscraper in downtown Reykjavik
http://www.davidbra...eland/jwz/erik5.jpg Um, apologies to any resident Icelanders. [jurist, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Dublin Entry
http://www.alcaudon...nd_ivybldg_pic.html [jurist, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
This is what I'd call a lawn scraper
https://wayback.arc...-and-thatching-rake [notexactly, Jun 09 2018]
[link]
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//It could even have little sweat hoses running up and down the building to prevent// What? |
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Ivy and creeping fig already grow quite well on almost any vertical masonry surface with little encouragement, and have done so for centuries. I'm not sure that everyone agrees that the "coolness factor" and oxygen production that this kind of parasitic greenery provides office buildings outweighs the damage that the dendritic roots cause to the underlying surfaces. |
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Buildings and water don't play well together. Also, a lawnscraper city would be nothing more than a giant lawngrub factory - pedestrians would need umbrellas to avoid the constant rain of worm and lawngrub casts. |
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I think we already have a similar thing
existing called vines. Ivy and grapevines
can be seen covering buildings all over
temperate climates. |
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Very nice link, [jurist]! |
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Ivy is great, but it would have less biomass than a building sided with sod, and I don't know if you could grow it that high, except with the system I suggested. Also, it'd be kinda difficult to make a logo out of Ivy (not Impossible, though). and it's not about oxygen production, it's about air filtration. maybe the wedges could be lined with thick rubber, to prevent the roots from ripping it apart. We don't have lawn grubs where I am, and I don't know why they would fall out, if they live in the lawn. And if your building doesn't play well with water, what on earth happens when it rains? |
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I think you'd be much better off using ivies, vines and plants that hug cliffs in the first place. Grass would be altogether too likely to dry out in a hostile city environment. |
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The trees in NYC aren't poisoned so much by the air (we have some virgin forests in the boros with trees over 400 years old) as by the local dogs and the winter salt. |
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But croissant for urban plantlife. |
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