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.
-- schematics, May 16 2004

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]

//It could even have little sweat hoses running up and down the building to prevent//
What?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 17 2004


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.
-- jurist, May 17 2004


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.
-- ConsulFlaminicus, May 17 2004


I think we already have a similar thing existing called vines. Ivy and grapevines can be seen covering buildings all over temperate climates.
-- macrumpton, May 17 2004


Very nice link, [jurist]!
-- Letsbuildafort, May 17 2004


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?
-- schematics, May 17 2004


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.

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.

But croissant for urban plantlife.
-- DrCurry, May 17 2004



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