Good Buildings on a Small Planet

More beauty. More meaning. More community. What is a good building on a small planet? How can we create a rich, humanist architecture that is built on a profound respect for local as well as global resources?

Good Buildings on a Small Planet presents eight different answers that are framed by thoughts, ideas and new architecture. The introductory essay written by author Rasmus Rune Nielsen discusses the contribution of architecture to a sustainable development and lays out a humanist approach to sustainable architecture.

The book presents a range of recent projects such as Lendager Group’s new row houses in Copenhagen that are built with upcycled concrete and facades from abandoned houses from all over Denmark. GXN’s Quay Quarter Tower high-rise in Sydney where floors can be disassembled and moved up and down in the elevator while the building is in use, to minimise the resources required for refurbishment. C.F. Møller Architects’ HSB high-rise in Stockholm in massive wood and new concrete. CLT hybrids projects in Sweden. Henning Larsen Architects’ Siemens headquarters in Munich. EFFEKT’s ReGen Villages and up-coming, self-sustaining eco-neighbourhoods in Denmark. SLA’s combined office and residential building above the Périphérique ring road in Paris which uses fungi and planted facades to cleanse the air and form a green link between the city centre and the suburbs. Tredje Natur’s Pop-Up Parking concept that proposes a better utilization of urban space by inventing a new mix of urban space, parking structure and water retention basin.

The architects portrayed are Lendager Group, GXN, C.F. Møller Architects, Vandkunsten, EFFEKT, Henning Larsen Architects, SLA and Tredje Natur (Third Nature).