Vegetated Wall Systems – Presentation (Part II)
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Category Archives: Stockholm Resilience Center
Vegetated & Living Wall Systems Presentation – Pt I
Later next week I will be presenting the results of my work here to the Urban Theme group at the SRC & Beijer Institute, along with a few other guests. Here’s a sneak peak:
Åhléns
Vegetated & Living Wall Systems report, cover image
Vegetated & Living Wall Systems – progress update
I thought it appropriate to post a little progress update on some of the research I’ve been working on. This report will contribute to the overall greening efforts at the new Stockholm University campus, and will compliment the efforts there to establish and maintain social ecological systems (SES). SES are a main tenant of the Center’s visioning, documented in their Q4 book about the Albano region. While I’ll continue to refine this report for future uses and expand its applicability, I hope to be able to undertake some ecological connectivity studies that may illuminate some strategic locations for vegetated wall interventions in Stockholm. I’ve also been developing some designs for vegetated wall systems, which I will post later.
Stora Karlsö
Stora Karlsö is a one mile by one mile windswept island situated four miles off the west coast of Gotland, which, in turn, is located approximately half-way between Sweden and Latvia, one hundred miles south of Stockholm. It rises 170 feet (52m) out of the sea with steep limestone cliffs, with a delicate, alvarian biotope ontop. Jeff Ranara, my adviser here, was thoughtful enough to place me on the list for the first ever all-staff trip of the Stockholm Resilience Center, all expenses paid.
The goal of the trip was to allow staff to decompress, develop new relationships, and discuss the success and future progression of the Center. The trip was coordinated by Olof Olsson, deputy director of the Stockholm Resilience Center, in conjunction with Henrik Österblom, Jonas Hentati Sundberg, and Martina Kadin, who have been working on the Baltic Sea Bird study on Stora Karlsö. We were treated to amazing scenery, delicious food, and even live music by Jonas and one of the park rangers, who grew up on Gotland together.
The sea bird study was started by Olof Olsson in 1997, one of the first studies of pelagic birds in the Baltic, it sought to use the birds as an indicator species for the Baltic ecosystem. One exceptional development in the study was the construction of a 4-story bird-nesting shelter, grafted to the cliff side, that allows researchers to access roosting mures throughout their lifespan. This is achieved by providing man-made nesting ledges on the outside of the structure which are accessed via small doors from the inside of the structure. Birds can be banded, weighed, and counted year after year.
The survey house is accessed from the top of the cliff, near the lighthouse, and descends several stories before the survey levels are reached. The island provides refuge for countless sea birds as well as other species, and typically the majority of beaches are closed to foot traffic in order to protect the nesting sites. Fortunately, by early September, these sites are opened, and we had unrestricted access to the entire island.
The preservation plan that protects Stora Karlsö was started by Willy Wöhler, in 1880. He convinced many well-to-do Swedes of the natural value of the island, and began restoration work shortly thereafter. Interestingly, with the removal of the substantial sheep flocks, the ecosystem did not return to its native balance, but quickly became overgrown with Juniperus vegetation. This called for a managed re-introduction of some sheep in order to curb the developing monoculture. Today sheep continue to graze the island, albeit in limited numbers (approximately 300-500 per season).
One remarkable tree, sited in the ruins of an old burial mound is known as the Linnaeus Ash, a specimen of the species Fraxinus excelsior. It served as a navigational aid for many years, and has been reinforced with concrete from time to time, as was common practice in with older trees Sweden for quite some time.
The flora of Stora Karlsö is noteworthy for several rare wildflowers, its stark alvar environment, and for evidence of neolithic inhabitation. Besides the numerous burial mounds, excavations have also revealed numerous bronze-age implements and other acheological evidence of continued inhabitation, that continues into the present under the preservation management system.
Stockholm Resilience Center
On Monday, 8/29, I finally met with my advisers at the Resilience Center, Stephan Barthel & Jeff Ranara. Jeff has been quite busy preparing to defend his licentiate, which he did yesterday, but managed to spend the good part of the day with me, helping me get set up and securing a desk as well. I sit in a cozy upstairs office in Krafton, in a little house with a high-end cafeteria next door where the Systems Ecology graduates and PhDs have their space, close to the Resilience Center and Environment Institute. We are at the north-end of the Kraftriket (Crayfish Kingdom) campus, which is south of the main University campus and along the shores of Lilla Brunnsviken. After a center-wide meeting that afternoon, Stephan joined us for a short brain-storming session where we decided that I would begin by researching vegetated wall systems, which so far has resulted in a 10-page literature review of research pertaining the potential benefits of these systems as well as the technology involved. The goal of this work is to identify viable vertical-wall plant species and systems that would support critical habitat for selected, red-listed species in Stockholm, and we have identified several strategic sites for Stockholm’s first living wall. Interestingly, some of this work closely parallels efforts at the Green Futures Lab at UW’s CBE, so we will be sharing some of our findings in the coming weeks, as the GFL recently received grant funding to develop a green wall system at Gould Hall. On top of that, Nancy Rottle (GFL founder) will be in Stockholm this coming weekend and I have arranged for her to meet with Stephan and other members of the Albano group to discuss plans for the new Stockholm University campus as well as the development of possible future collaborations.
The last few weeks have been full of meetings and outings, new friends and plenty of work. Jeff was thoughtful enough to put me on the waiting list for the Stora Karlsö staff trip, a first-time all-center, 3-day excursion to the wildlife preserve island off the coast of Gotland 7.5 travel hours away–I’ll write more about this trip soon. Other meetings have included the first of many ‘Resilience Dialogues,’ which are held every Wednesday during the fall, one of which I’ve been asked to conduct–Landscape and Resilience; several meetings with the Urban Theme (lead by Thomas Elmqvist, who will be traveling to Cornel University for the semester to work on a joint project updating the Melenium ecosystem assessment); and a meeting regarding the Albano project and the existing plans for the new campus, among others.
The Albano meeting was a somewhat surreal experience, as the plans as they are now completely ignore the sensitivities of both Copenhagen-based Christensen&Co’s competition-winning entry for the new campus as well as the Patch-Work Group’s efforts to instill resilience-thinking and a sustainable, visionary architecture. Depressing is one apt description of the proposed plan as it sits today. However, it seems unlikely that this will be allowed to proceed unchallenged by community organizations involved with the park. The current proposal is basically an urban development within the Urban National Park, rather than the more conventional “houses in the forest” approach. Likewise, the current plan makes no provisions for habitat, integrated systems, or innovative, social spaces. 
From my perspective, the SRC appears to be in an unenviable position of deciding whether to proceed with fund raising efforts for their own center, one which would more closely reflect their values (e.g. the Lewis Center at Oberlin) or carefully engage in a larger political debate regarding the entire campus plan. Hopefully both will be possible and bring about better outcomes than a replica of a 1970’s Swedish college campus, as represented in the current proposal.
dtresilience 