How can existing buildings integrate water management, biodiversity, and social use within the same architectural intervention?
“Vertical Watergarden” investigates how rainwater can be captured and channelled to support planting beds on existing terraces. Developed as a short iterative research project within Living Lab HIL, it brings together expertise in landscape architecture, computational design, and robotic construction to prototype a multifunctional system for future building retrofits.
Building on insights from the Living Lab HIL projects “Green Rooftops as an Opportunity” and “The Campus as a Living Ecosystem”, the project materialises rainwater management as a physical interface between water, plants, humans, and other species. The prototype combines additively manufactured water-collection elements with lightweight rebar structures that transport water, support vegetation, and provide habitats for birds.
Beyond its ecological function, the project explores how conventional construction materials can be reimagined through digital design and fabrication workflows. The full-scale prototype will serve as a test for evaluating water collection and distribution performance, plant growth, and new approaches to low-labour, material-efficient terrace retrofits.
