lijbers architects: biodiversity

‘biodiversity’ by lijbers architects, the netherlands all images courtesy of lijbers architects

amsterdam-based studio lijbers architects have created ‘biodiversity’, an urban planning proposal sited within the netherlands which addresses the overall decline of natural environments due to rapid development by humans. biodiversity of plants and animals within ecosystems have reduced significantly as a direct result of the human need to consume space and raw materials, initiating this design to revert these negative trends and reclaim as much as possible before it is gone entirely. without adequate time or locations to recover and reproduce to continue their specie populations, this initiative intends to rectify this by placing frameworks upon existing structures, creating additional surface area to plant and grow flora and fauna.

the metabolism of naturally occurring ecosystems is extremely slow, resulting in the need for a catalyst to speed up the pace of evolution to closer approach the rapid development pace of society. ‘architectural enzymes’ will assist with natural processes, an artificial entity in the form of stacked open levels will allow regeneration in the urban context. a network of modules will spread out over the city creating a new typology of a community without boundaries. the three dimensional spatial solution will place green spaces atop existing buildings and within abandoned sites.

case study example of the tripolis building in amsterdam

model of architectural enzymes taking over the building

construct contains vertical ecosystems

model detail

model detail

elevation

sectional elevation

metabolism reaches its maximum as new space is created for both the natural environment and human interaction

section at full metabolism

metabolism within the urban fabric

figure ground diagram

disappearance of the natural environment

schematic representation of the reallocation of mobile nature. original modules remain, but are reallocated through space

architectural enzymes facilitating integration of natural entities within the urban fabric

the creation of space by taking natural entities from their 2 dimensional paradigm towards a 3 dimensional network