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Posts Tagged ‘Forests’

Weekly Photography Challenge – Forests

14 Dec

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Forests appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

This week’s photography challenge topic is FORESTS!

Bright-pine-plantations-victoria-by-caz-nowaczyk

Bright pine plantations, victoria, Australia by Caz Nowaczyk ©

Forests are a spectacular place to visit. Filled with trees, nature and wildlife, they ground us and make us feel good.

Throughout the seasons and in different countries around the world, they can be filled with snow or fallen leaves. They can have tree-lined rows of tall trees, or ferns on the forest floors. You might find moss, mushrooms or native flowers. Or look for the birds and wildlife.

They can be light and bright, or dark and moody. Use color or black and white.

So, check out these pics, get inspired, have fun, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

The-horn-mt-buffalo-victoria-by-caz-nowaczyk

The Horn, Mt Buffalo, Victoria, Australia by Caz Nowaczyk ©

 

Check out some of the articles below that give you tips on this week’s challenge.

Tips for Shooting FORESTS

Tips for Better Forest Photography

5 Tips for Better Forest Bird Photography

8 Quick Tips to Produce Better Forest Photography

4 Ideas for More Creative Shots when Photographing from One Position

How to Create a Dream Forest in Adobe Photoshop

5 Tips for Better Winter Landscape Photography

8 Creative Ways to Photograph Trees

4 Tips for Taking Better Photographs of Trees

5 Tips for Gorgeous Nature Photography Lighting

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge.

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSforests to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Forests appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.


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Compact CityTree: Vertical Micro-Garden Packs a Forest’s Worth of Green Benefits

17 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

Packing the environmental impact of as many as 275 actual urban trees, these multi-functional CityTree units are dense and efficient fighters of urban air pollution (the single largest environmental health risk). Each CityTree can remove 240 metric tons of CO2 per year, as much as a small forest.

Developed by Green City Solutions in Berlin, the CityTree is covered in moss cultures — their high surface area ratios help remove dust and other airborne gasses and chemicals at a rate much higher than normal trees. Each unit has solar panels providing electricity and automated rainwater collection systems to store and distribute moisture as needed. Sensors help monitor soil humidity, temperature, water and air quality in and around each unit.

CityTrees have started sprouting in places like Paris, Brussels and Hong Kong, occupying a few square meters on city sidewalks while also (optionally) serving as public seating. Of course, air pollution is rarely evenly distributed in cities, so placement in high-traffic/emissions areas is also critical.

Developed by an architect and an engineer, the CityTree has been in the works for over a decade. “Our ultimate goal is to incorporate technology from the CityTree into existing buildings,” one of the designers told CNN. “We dream of creating a climate infrastructure so we can regulate what kind of air and also what kind of temperature we have in a city.” Beyond this compact and mobile application, lessons learned from monitoring and growing dense mosses on individual CityTree installations could also be applied on larger structural surfaces down the line.

Photocatalytic Concrete: Air-Cleaning Building Absorbs Smog

Featuring 100,000 square feet of smog-filtering surface area, this structural facade will break down harmful oxides in sunlight to improve air quality all around it.

The building, designed …

Mountain-Shaped Residences with Walkable Green Rooftops

Beyond any inherent beauty or formal references to surrounding mountains, there is a more profound proposition in this series of structures about the way we walk into, through and above …

Forested Facades: 13 Buildings Bringing Greenery to the City

Why stop at parks when we could make cities lusher and greener by integrating thousands of plants right into the facades of urban buildings? Vertical greenery improves air quality, shades the …

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Urban Algae Canopy Produces a Forest’s Worth of Oxygen Daily

11 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

urban algae prototype system

Generating as much oxygen per day as 400,000 square feet of natural woodland, the Urban Algae Canopy combines architecture, biology and digital technology to create a structure that responds to and enhances its environment.

urban algae exterior shelter

Created by EcoLogics Studio, this “world’s first bio-digital canopy integrates micro-algal cultures and real time digital cultivation protocols on a unique architectural system,” with flows of water and energy regulated by weather patterns and visitor usage. Sun increases photosynthesis, for example, causing the structure to generate organic shade in realtime. The canopy as a whole can produce over 300 pounds of biomass daily.

urban algae water system

A hybrid of architectural and ecosystem design, the canopy is made to adapt its features based on manual as well as environmental inputs, letting users exert control (via a digital interface) within a larger dynamic system. “This process is driven by the biology of mico-algae is inherently responsive and adaptive; visitors will benefit from this natural shading property while being able to influence it in real-time.”

urban canopy

For EcoLogics, this is just the beginning of a larger vision – organic systems tied to high-tech ones in current and future buildings and infrastructure, as well as a breakdown of the differentiation between urban and rural, cities and nature. Integrating organic and artificial systems opens up sustainable possibilities for everything from temperature control to power generation.

urban algae canopy project

More from its creators: “In ecoLogicStudio we believe that it is now time to overcome the segregation between technology and nature typical of the mechanical age, to embrace a systemic understanding of architecture. In this prototype the boundaries between the material, spatial and technological dimensions have been carefully articulated to achieve efficiency, resilience and beauty.”

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Algae-Fueled Building: World’s First Bio-Adaptive Facade

Bio-reactors and micro-algae sound like the stuff of science fiction, but this is the real deal: biomass built into panel glass on an actual working structure.
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Vertical Forests: 2 Lush Urban Towers Support 16,000 Plants

Skeptics of improbably green skyscraper concepts might want to take a moment of silence to appreciate the successful construction of these two beautiful …
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Algaculture: Symbiosis Suit Produces Food from Breath

The Agaculture Symbiosis Suit proposes a mutually beneficial relationship between the human wearing the suit, and the algae-turned-food in the tubes.
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Vertical Forests: 2 Lush Urban Towers Support 16,000 Plants

25 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

green tower real life

Skeptics of improbably green skyscraper concepts might want to take a moment of silence to appreciate the successful construction of these two beautiful buildings now nearly completion.

green tower lush views

Designed by Stefano Boeri in Milan, Italy, the twin towers of the Bosco Verticale play host to nearly 1,000 trees, 5,000 shrubs and over 10,000 additional small plants.

green skyscraper tower design

The building was fully designed with its greenery in mind, including accommodations for irrigation, root systems, plant weights and wind loads within the city. This rich miniature ecosystem of plant life in turn helps filter the surrounding air, dampen urban noise and provide shade for residents. For its local environment, the building increases biodiversity and provides habitats for regional birds and insects.

green tower balcony trees

From the designers: “The creation of a number of vertical forests in the city will be able to create a network of environmental corridors which will give life to the main parks in the city, bringing the green space of avenues and gardens and connecting various spaces of spontaneous vegetation growth. [This project] helps to build a micro-climate and to filter dust particles which are present in the urban environment. The diversity of the plants helps to create humidity, and absorb CO2 and dust, produces oxygen, protects people and houses from the suns rays and from acoustic pollution.”

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Twin Tree-Covered Towers: The World’s First Vertical Forests

Concept designs from far-fetched futurists have toyed with the idea for years, but one firm has finally made the vision a reality: towers extensively populated …
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Natural Lighting: Grow Your Own Glow-in-the-Dark Plants

Imagine the possibilities: cities illuminated at night not with carbon dioxide-producing energy sources, but with real glow-in-the-dark trees that light up …
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3D City Farms: 5 Urban Design Proposals for Green Towers

Here are five of these remarkable architectural designs for sustainable (and stylish) urban farm towers that may revolutionize agriculture as we know it.
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Twin Tree-Covered Towers: The World’s First Vertical Forests

26 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

vertical towers construction progress

Concept designs from far-fetched futurists have toyed with the idea for years, but one firm has finally made the vision a reality: towers extensively populated with intensive (meaning: large and heavy) plant life. In short: trees!

vertical forest sky trees

Situated in Milan, Italy, many skeptics were sure these two towers were just another pie-in-the-sky plan for an impossible building. After all, the load-bearing requirements alone for over 10,000 trees and 5,000 shrubs are extreme. Stefano Boeri Architetti (photos by Marco Garofalo) is showing them otherwise.

vertical green skyscraper lighting

The added weight is not wasted, nor ornamental – the vegetation layers will reduce the need for temperature regulation within the building. They will also filter the congested air of the city and serve to help reduce the temperature (always higher in urban areas).

vertical forest tree diagrams

vertical forest buildings

The pre-grown plant life was carefully selected for the structure based on the regional climate, light and wind exposure, and is even now being hoisted into final positions. When complete, this will be, on some metrics, quite literally the greenest pair of buildings in the world.

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