GREEN CAST [vertical green: aesthetic + function exposed]

Project: Green Cast, Odaware-shi, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan

Architect/Designer: Kengo Kuma and Associates

Featured material: Aluminum die cast panels and plant material.

This vertical green facade by KK+A leaves nothing to the imagination of the viewer as to how this upward green surface works. It is mainly a facade/rain screen application on the multipurpose five story building which consists of a shop, a clinic, offices, and a private residence that pro-grammatically moves upward from the storefront all the way to the roof open terrace. The facade is composed of aluminum die-cast panels that are set off the secondary building facade creating a rain-screen where all of the equipment needed to support the plant material is located. This same space frame helps to keep away the building of overheating, but still allows daylight and ventilation to pass through the porosity of the panels design made out of mono-block casting from decayed styrene foam. It also gives the facade an organic feel as dwellers approach the building and look underneath the space frame near the ground floor storefront. This exposure reveals the irrigation equipment, including watering hoses, air reservoir for ventilation and down-pipes which helps to admire its complex functionality up close and its appreciation for its aesthetic juxtaposition at a distance.

Synthesized features:

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