Greenwashing or ecology?: A green oasis for high-income elites

The conversation is interrupted and the intercom announces the number of the elevator that takes the employee of the Zug Estates company, which operates Aglaya, to the fourteenth floor. It’s right in the middle of retiree Heidy Schumpf’s modern two-room apartment surrounded by 15,000 plants.

11 species of trees, 52 species of perennials, 19 species of shrubs and other plant species are growing and surrounding the façade of the 70-meter-high residential building in the canton of Zug. By doing this they are doing something good for the climate. Because plants clean CO2 from the air. In addition, the wide green façade serves as insulation against the heat in summer.

Oasis for the rich

“It’s so quiet here and the air is so fresh,” says homeowner Heidy Schumpf, as she looks around her small apartment, whose windows let in a soft greenish light. Schumpf paid a lot of money for his oasis. Prices for apartments in Aglaya ranged from 600,000 to 2,700,000 francs. The most expensive and largest is a 5.5-room apartment.

It is not uncommon for green homes to be built for high-income elites. 200 km south of Rotkreuz, in Milan, another green – equally expensive – building complex rises. The first high-rise building in the world to address the concept of greening: Bosco Verticale – vertical forest.

A hundred meters of lush, electric, evergreen space. The masterpiece of Italian architect Stefano Boeri can be seen from afar. When “Vertical Forest” was completed in 2014, photos of the building complex made headlines around the world. Stefano Boeri not only gained international fame thanks to the project, but its construction also launched an exciting green wave in architecture.

Architect and idealist

After much back and forth, Boeri finds half an hour in his schedule. When the phone reaches Italy, all that can be heard at first is noise. Then Boeri’s broken voice is heard. «When we built Bosco Verticale, we paid a level of attention to plants that is not normally found in our profession.»

He talks about treating plants as tenants. And how important biodiversity conservation is to him. How good the towers are for the climate. And how many towers has it already built and how many are it planning? He states that another work of his will appear in Lausanne soon. Huge loggias instead of balconies and a magnificent view of Lake Geneva.

“Do you want holistic green cities, Mr. Boeri?” The question interrupts the architect’s flow of conversation. “Certainly!” he called excitedly into the phone. “So how will that work if you build green residential buildings at such a high price?” Then it gets quiet. He thinks.

We strive for cheaper housing

«The prototype in Milan was quite expensive. “This was the first time a building with trees was being built at a height of 100 or 120 meters,” explains Boeri. He and his team spent a lot of money and time on research to find out which plants are suitable for a high-rise building in this climate zone. Ultimately, construction costs amounted to roughly 2,700 francs per square metre.

“Immediately after the construction of Bosco Verticale, we began to investigate how these buildings could be built for everyone,” Boeri continues. For example, in the Netherlands, a social housing building with a vertical forest costs 1,500 francs per square meter.

While the star architect continues to build towers and offer cheaper living space with his team in Italy, another architect sits in an office in Zurich. It was Raphael Schmid who built the expensive Aglaya.

Visit

Hail pelted the windows of the small office in Zurich. The architecture firm Ramser Schmid Architects recently moved; At the entrance, instead of a doorbell, a printed paper still hangs in a plastic case. Still, the office is already crammed with sketches and office supplies. There is a warm light in the meeting room. Boss Raphael Schmid straightens his denim shirt. “Mr. Schmid, would you like to tell me how it all started?”

In 2015, Ramser Schmid Architects won the competition for the green high-rise building that would become Aglaya. At that time Bosco Verticale already had a great international reputation. “So we said to the customer: ‘Oh, you want something like Bosco Verticale?’ “He didn’t like that question very much,” says Raphael Schmid.

So Schmid began looking for other inspiration and found it in Austrian architect Richard Neutra, who built buildings in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.

“It created the illusion that the inside is outside and the outside is inside,” Schmid enthuses. He opens his laptop, writes something and turns the screen. You can see photos of Aglaya and lush plants.

«Aglaya was built for a specific segment of tenants. “It could have been done cheaper,” he says. Philipp Hodel from Zug Estates says: “It would be possible to build a cheaper building than Aglaya. But we opposed it. Because: We wanted a lighthouse project.”

More gray than green

The first drawings of what would become a green giant were created in Schmid’s office. But during construction, greenery was a long time coming; Initially, there were tons of concrete on the barren construction land.

The building material was used to create the basic structure of the house and troughs for 15,000 plants. Everything had to be magnificent and big. Zug Estates made a huge investment of 100 million francs.

Landscape architects chose different plants for each direction; thus they adapted to the weather conditions in the best possible way. In the entire Suurstoffi region, where Aglaya is located, 300 soil probe sites were positioned at a depth of 300 meters and solar cells were placed on the roofs. A green jacket from basement to attic.

“This may sound like a cliché, but ecological structure is in our DNA in the Suurstoffi region, together with Aglaya,” says Philipp Hodel from Zug Estates. For the company, Aglaya is a showcase project and a positioning for ecological construction. But hasn’t the gray energy spent on construction been forgotten? What about the 8,000 liters of water laboriously pumped from the basement every day to water the plants?

When asked, Luzian Franzini, Deputy Chairman of the Swiss Green Party and member of the Cantonal Council of Zug, writes: “In my opinion, it is not ecological to unnecessarily put in so much additional effort in terms of static, watering and plant care for the trees on the facade. Trees can also be planted traditionally in Rotkreuz and therefore takes up less land.”

For the Green Party, the main issue in the development plan discussions at that time was not Aglaya’s facade, but the heating of the settlement as a heat network using earthen tanks and the provision of affordable living space. . “We didn’t achieve that goal,” says Franzini.

Empty promises of climate neutrality

Philipp Hodel and Heidy Schumpf stand at an altitude of 70 meters on the terrace of the green giant. During the summer months, barbecue parties and neighborly get-togethers are held on the roof. Hodel extends his hand and points into the distance. “An incredible sight, isn’t it?” says.

As he steps to the left edge, he uses his arms to shield the view of eight steel-gray army fuel tanks that look out of place against the green landscape. “I would take photos in this direction,” he asks. “There you see Lake Zug, it is much more beautiful!”

The website clearly states that Zug Estates has avoided using external energy sources since the beginning of the project and strives for CO2 neutrality. With this statement, they cover up the obvious grayness hiding under the green. “The calculation you have to make is this: Does the ecological added value justify the gray energy spent on construction?” says Raphael Schmid. says.

When you look at gray energy as a determining factor, Aglaya cannot be said to be an ecological project. Although there are certainly efforts towards a sustainable energy supply.

Farewell to green cities?

Architect Raphael Schmid is currently working on a new project that will feature greenery on the exterior. Apart from the cheaper approach, there is one big difference with Aglaya: The architect does not use 15,000 different plants for greenery, instead limiting himself to a smaller selection of climbing plants.

There is one paradox: climbing plants only grow to a height of 15 meters. This means that the entire building is not green. So can’t it fulfill the purpose of an Aglaya or a Bosco Verticale?

“Fundamentally, buildings do not need a completely green façade to be good for the climate,” says Schmid. “At heights above 15 metres, there is too much wind. So reducing heat on the upper floors is actually a less urgent issue.” The lower area where insulated floors radiate heat is much more important.Climbing plants are also much more frugal in their water consumption: they have enough rainwater to survive.

see in the future

As Raphael Schmid shows, greening does not necessarily have to be an expensive and extremely resource-intensive process. Cities like Zurich are also jumping on the green wave and are already supporting greening projects with subsidies.

Although it is the dream of some architects to build lighthouses like Bosco Verticale and Aglaya and shine with them, there will probably never be cities full of lush residential buildings.

“In the last few centuries, we have built cities without trees, plants and greenery. This won’t change either. But this is no reason not to try,” says architect Stefano Boeri.

idyllic ending

So they sit in their offices in Italy, in Zurich, in Rotkreuz, and think about the future. Will it be gray or green? Or both together?

Meanwhile, Heidy Schumpf is watering pink flowers on the balcony of her tiny apartment, which shouldn’t actually exist. The care contract forbids him from planting anything in the troughs. But he was allowed to do so by the flying gardeners who visited him twice a year and lowered his façade by rope. “I just have a talent for it,” he says. He also had a large garden.

So he’s enjoying his expensive oasis, which will probably stay that way; An ecotopia for rich and big-thinking architects.