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THE USE OF NATURAL VEGETATION COMMUNITIES OF THE NORTH-WEST OF RUSSIA IN LANDSCAPING OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS AS A MEANS OF ENHANCING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC
N.A. Kerimova
This report deals with some of the results of a study devoted to the development of new landscapes for public buildings and facilities in St. Petersburg and their influence on the environmental education of the city's residents. Large shopping and entertainment malls, business centers, office and administrative buildings, hotels and exhibition halls have been actively erected in St. Petersburg in the last decade, with the number of such facilities growing rapidly. These facilities are not only highly attractive to investors but also become centers of attraction for a significant number of people.
Our study of twenty selected facilities (class A business centers) has shown that open areas adjacent to them are intensively utilized to accommodate pedestrian zones, driveways and open parking lots. With rare exceptions, these areas have green plantations and dedicated recreation areas that are protected from harmful impacts of the motor traffic and adverse climatic factors. In general these open areas have an aesthetically poor appearance, lack comfort and in some cases are unsafe. Much cash is invested in seasonal flower decorations that are costly, labor-intensive to maintain and perform no environmental function in the city environment. Moreover, urban plantations use a limited range of plants, most of which are not typical of the natural ecotopes of the dark coniferous forests of the North-West of Russia. As a result gardens, mini-parks and other green spaces in the city do not reflect the natural appearance and beauty of the southern taiga region, nor do they enable the residents of the most northern metropolis in the world to identify with the natural environment.
One of the ways to solve this problem may be to integrate the natural vegetation of the North-West Region into the city's architectural environment. Modern innovative technology allows increasing the scope of green plantations both by integrating plants into the design of architectural projects and by placing them in the surrounding areas. «Green roof» and «green wall» technologies can compensate for the space lost under the building projection and create a green vegetation layer in the context of limited spaces in the city center. Construction of underground parking lots allows placing full-fledged and spacious gardens and mini-parks on top of
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them. Different types of shaped green fencing in special parapets will operate to structure the space and provide protected pedestrian zones.
Our study is focused on the possibilities of using the reference natural habitats and vegetation communities for creating green spaces and fragments around buildings and within their structure. The scientifically validated approach to selecting vegetation communities relevant to the growth conditions in the wild and urban environment in the North-West region will in general help increase environmental sustainability of the urban environment. For instance, we suggest using coastal (littoral) vegetation communities for artificial water bodies that serve to dispose of and accumulate storm runoff from roofs and large parking areas or using typical upland vegetation communities for planting extensive green roofs. Selecting and developing conditions in the design of architectural projects to render them as much as possible close to the relevant natural living (growth and development) conditions of the vegetation communities will help create sustainable green areas and maintain and upkeep them with minimum costs. In order to promote interest to and knowledge of the natural vegetation of this region among the public, we find it important to provide these «natural landscapes» with special specifications including Russian and Latin names of plants and traditional and geobotanical names of habitats, such as pine forests, dry lands, lowland swamps, etc., and bilberry pine forests, wood sorrel spruce forests, dry grass meadows, and fens. The recreation of fragments of natural vegetation in the center of the megalopolis will help the public develop a clearer idea of the features and the beauty of nature of the NorthWest region, draw their attention to species and forms of vegetation in their region, improve their self-identification with the natural environment of their region and in general create a conceptual model of an urban natural environment for creating stable landscapes within other elements of the urban infrastructure (in streets, squares, residential districts and countryside townships).
In order to provide a wider conceptualization of the process of integration between the natural environment and the urban environment and place of man in this integrated environment, we suggest introducing the concept "a buffer area of an architectural project” as a space created with the use of landscaping architecture and design techniques within the structure of an architectural project and around it to bring a building and its environment together functionally and compositionally.
In general, this approach helps not only integrate natural components into the architectural environment of the city but also establish a stable green framework, create a healthier habitat and promote a feeling of unity with nature in people.
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