The minute we hear the word office garden we paint a pretty mental picture how an office can be integrated with the landscape.

The minute we hear the word office garden we paint a pretty mental picture how an office can be integrated with the landscape. This imagination often ends up to be a space we want but not the space we have. Today’s offices are highly technology driven. When people reach their air conditioned offices they take a seat and stare at a computer till they call it a day. They are never reflected by the outside surroundings. It may be hot or cold or rainy outside a building, they never know it inside. Our current style of buildings does nothing other than isolating us from our surrounding. The more we isolate ourselves from nature, the more we make a negative impact on it. Which raises sustainability issues and big question mark on our current lifestyles. People often tend to go outdoors to enjoy, be it a beach or park it is fun to go out in the sun. But unfortunately due to our busy lifestyle we are forced to spend more than half of our day indoors, home, office etc.  We don’t want to give up our work to enjoy outside. But how do we experience more nature amidst all work pressure? “In the big picture, architecture is the art and science of making sure that our cities and buildings fit with the way we want to live our lives.”                                                                                                                      - Bjarke Ingels Juxtaposition of landscape and workspace: The key is to interweave landscape into our buildings. Placing an outdoor space within an indoor space may seem impossible. But this mix and match of our traditional elements sure works.  Exploiting our current ideology to arrive at a possible and workable solution is acceptable. If we lock ourselves in a room with no openings we will feel claustrophobic, insecure etc. But when we have a window or a balcony there is a sense of openness to the room. The more visible nature is to people the more comfortable they get. This is not just a visual concept but also what we feel sensually matters. We can feel the light and natural air which are also the key factors which make us comfortable in a space. So when people want some time away from their system for a coffee or refreshing walk outside they need can use the garden. While relaxing they may bump into their friends and have a chit chat about work which makes it also a recreational space. Tallinn town hall:

This is the plan of town city hall in Tallinn proposed by BIG group. They have incorporated landscape into a traditional office space. This building has town offices inside the complex. The ground floor has blocks of different departments with garden spaces in between the blocks.

Section through the building and an interior image of the garden space. The front most hall has a high rise tower with a mirror on the top which gives the periscopial view of the city on the roof. 

The garden space in the ground floor is used as recreational space. It can be overlooked from atrium from the top floors with glass roof on the top. The spiral: It is a 65 tower glass building in Manhattan wrapped in a spiral green belt of garden spaces. The building has a series of garden spaces ascending from initial floors to the top forming a continuous spiral pathway. This building provides each tenant a private outdoor garden space.

“The spiral combines the classic ziggurat silhouette of the pre modern skyscraper with the slender proportions and efficient layouts of the modern high-rise. The spiral will punctuate the northern end of the highline and the linear park will appear to carry through into the tower forming an ascending ribbon of lively green spaces extending the High Line to the skyline”  said Bjarke Ingels about the tower.

From base to the topmost floor of the tower every floor opens up to the outdoors through hanging garden and cascading atria. The tower has expansive views of the city with flexible layouts. Floors can be opened up and adapted for tenants who want to occupy multiple stories.

Buildings with landscapes not only give comfort to the user but also lessen its impact on nature. When we have more green spaces near a building in a tropical climate it reduces the amount of heat absorbed by the building which in turn reduces energy consumption and carbon emissions. In case of our offices we consume high amount of energy to keep our interiors in a comfortable temperature. So placing a garden nearby reduces the amount of energy consumed per day considerably. So in every way an office garden is a win-win situation where both sustainability can be achieved while making it more comfortable and enjoyable for end users.