AD Interviews: Alexis Rocha, I/O Platform

Sep 2009

By David Basulto — Filed under: ArchDaily Interviews ,Sustainability , Alexi Rocha, I/O, Los Angeles, SCI-Arc

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At the beginning of the summer we visited SYNTHe, a urban rooftop garden designed and built by professor Alexis Rocha (I/O Platform founder) with SCI-Arc students.

The SYNTHe project is a 3,000sqf structure located on the top of The Flat, a mid rise residential building in downtown Los Angeles, and its the first green garden approved by city official. The idea of this “green blanket” over at the top of the building is to reduce the building heat gain, reduce storm water waste (80% is captured and used for irrigation) and to establish a sustainable plant ecosystem that collaborated with air pollutants filtering. It also reclaims the rooftop area from HVAC, ventilation and fire control systems, giving a new terrace for the users of the building.

Inside this blanket, 1,500sqf are dedicated to the production of edible plant species, and we had the chance to taste them at the restaurant during lunch, very good. The species planted include:

30% Herbs
English, Lemon and Summer Thyme; Variegated Oregano; Purple, Spotted and Silver Sage; Thai, Japanese and Purple Basil, Rue, Italian Parsley, Bay Leaves; Peppermint, Spearmint, Candy, Gray and Corsican Mint.
50%Leaves
Dandelion; Hawaian Onions; Collard Greens; Swiss Chard; Red, Orange, Green Chard;
Butterhead, Boston, Bibb, Buttercrunch Lettuces; Wheat Grass; Kale; Squash blossoms; Broccoli.
20% Fruits
White Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Jalapennos; Carrots; Tomatoes

A video of the SYNTHe green roof and more photos after the break.

Project Credits:
I/O
Alexis Rochas, Principal.

SCI_Arc Design-Build Research Laboratory
Alexis Rochas, Instructor
Project Team: Jeremy Backlar, Leigh Bell, Reymundo Castillo, Deborah Fuentes, John Klein, John Ford, Santino Medina, Leandro Rolon, Wataru Sakaki, Patrick Shields.

Engineering
Bruce Danziger. Arup, Los Angeles

Landscaping
Los Angeles Community Garden Council
Al Renner
Denise Bratton
Terence Toy, Garden Curator

Client
Bret Mosher, MKT
The Flat
Blue Velvet Restaurant

About David Basulto: Graduate Architect. Co Founder and Executive Editor of ArchDaily.com. Architecture geek.

Cite:
Basulto , David . "AD Interviews: Alexis Rocha, I/O Platform" 24 Sep 2009. ArchDaily. Accessed 10 Feb 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/36164>

Comments (14)
Tweets (10)
Links to this entry (3)

LOW says:

I dont think a couple of flowers will do much for air pollution, but it’s nice anyway

# September 24, 2009 at 17:54

frank says:

Every time the same questions is a bit unimaginative. But I do appreciate the effort.

# September 24, 2009 at 18:39

kistof says:

I guess non of the above have visited an American city… you would appreciate the greenery! and with an abundance of roof space, urban gardens could easily, like above spring up and create awsome new small grean(pink and purple, grey and orange) cities on the roofs of LA!

# September 24, 2009 at 20:40

z99 says:

It’s beautiful, but I wonder if it would be difficult to reach some of the edible plants for picking (another case of form vs. function); or are the edible plants just located on the larger flat areas?

# September 24, 2009 at 21:14

David Basulto says:

z99,

I just added a photo of the chef collecting some plants before lunch. Very easy.

# September 26, 2009 at 14:16

valenthinner says:

i think we have to use more our bodies, we need to move in new surfaces and shapes. not always something functional has to be so easy to do that it turns boring — we are all the time in the same position and our muscles start to go “out of order”…… so I like the proyect and I would love to go up that tecno-mountain to get my plants and use my incstint to get there

# September 24, 2009 at 21:59

truth2 says:

Shouldn’t a green roof be green? It looks like they went to home depot and planted a couple plants for the photographer. That will die in a couple of days. Because there is no water system and the soil is not deep enough to support roots.This project is smoke and mirrors…or as mister Roches says…air.

# September 25, 2009 at 05:35