Melbourne hosts colLab Event 6

Melbourne hosted Event #6 in the colLab series on Thursday, 1st September 2022 with a lively discussion on biophilic building design.

Ecological artist Lloyd Godman, Geoff Heard, Managing Director of Fytogreen and Wayne Sanderson | Regional Director | Australia + New Zealand, Inhabit, kicked off the discussion with Elissa Stirling, Regional Manager | Victoria, Inhabit, moderating the conversation (pictured left).

The evening featured an immersive experience with guests entering a gallery with light projections, tillandsia (air plant) sculptures and installations by Lloyd Godman and a green wall and plant displays by Fytogreen, Australia’s leading specialist in green roofs and green walls. Tillandsias are commonly known as air plants because they are epiphytes, not needing soil for nourishment. They have a natural propensity to cling to whatever surfaces are readily available: telephone wires, tree branches, bark or bare rocks. Lloyd Godman has been experimenting with growing them at the top of some of Melbourne’s skyscrapers where they thrive without soil or water.

Among the 60 guests who attended were architects, landscape architects, City of Melbourne town planners and sustainability and environmental engineers many of whom contributed their views to the conversation.

The theme for the discussion was Reinvigorating Dead Pixels, a term coined by Lloyd Godman on seeing an aerial photograph of Melbourne city roofs with almost no greenery. Topics covered included what architects and designers can do to introduce more plants into the built environment, educating the industry about biophilic design, how to address the climate emergency and species selection for a warming climate.

ColLab Series:
. colLab Series # 5: Building Resilience in Design and Procurement
. colLab Series # 4: Net Zero – Declaration to Action
. colLab Series # 3: Focus on modular construction
. colLab Series #2: Collaboration highlighted
. colLab Series #1: Launch in Melbourne