A few buildings in the UK are exploring the incorporation of biodiversity into buildings. The Westfield Shopping Centre, Canary Wharf, and a Victorian Museum are at the “vanguard of a move to encourage biodiversity in buildings that could take on an unprecedented scale if guidelines published today are adopted,” says the Guardian (UK).
The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has issued recommendations to policy-makers, developers and urban planners that could enable wildlife to better integrate with the built environment. “Otters could return to urban rivers, bats roost under bridges, swifts could flock to office blocks and peregrine falcons soar above cathedrals.” The Guardian cites, in particular, the Westfield shopping centre in west London, which has a ”living wall” planted with wildflowers, and the green roof of the south London Horniman Museum.
Additional ways to encourage biodiversity in cities include nesting holes built into cavity walls for birds, or ledges that “mimic cliff faces for peregrine falcons which are attracted to tall buildings.” According to the Guardian, cathedrals are already known to house birds of prey. Also, green corridors could allow other mammals to “commute.”
Beyond these measures though, green roofs may do the most to bring biodiversity back to cities. In comments to the Guardian, Dave Wakelin from the sustainability consultancy Hilson Moran, said green roofs mimic grassland or shale environments and offer their own urban ecosystem. “Black redstarts have been attracted back to Canary Wharf by the shrill carder bee, a ground nesting bee that burrows into the sediments in the shale in the roof garden at 20 Cabot Tower.”
Carol Williams, Chairwoman of the UKGBC, said its important developers become a force for improving the ecological value of properties. “The construction and property sector has been pilloried in the past for its negative impact on green space, wildlife and habitat – but the industry can actually have a positive influence on ecological value. If we don’t make provision for wildlife now, then we might not be able to attract it retrospectively quite so easily.”
Read the article
Read the UKGBC Biodiversity Taskgroup report and recommendations
Image credit: ASLA Headquarters green roof
[...] (via The Dirt) [...]
[...] Inhabitat says the design was created with the assistance of ornithologists from Harvard and Cornell Universities. The bird-attracting green roof would be attached to a twelve story building, and filled with soil, water, gravel and other materials designed for birds. Webcams would be placed in the structure to allow researchers to monitor its usage. Read the article and an earlier post on biodiverse buildings. [...]