Posted today on Inhabitat: Super Futuristic Noain City Hall is a Plant-Covered Building That Boasts Passive Energy Saving Systems | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World

Deciduous vines are trained on a metal exoskeleton around the building, providing shading and passive cooling while allowing a varying amount of light to reach the core depending on time of year.  This is an impressive example of utilizing landscape elements as an integrated part of the building structure and energy systems.  It reminds me of some of the points Matt Piner of Pinerworks Architecture made at a past 4th Wednesday Design Dialogue, where he talked about integrating a ‘skin’ for buildings that could change with the seasons.

As an added bonus it looks cool.  Using the lower weight ratio of the vines/metal screen Zon-e Arquitectos was able to form an amorphous outer shell that pleasantly hides the simple rectangular box forms of the basic structure.  Check out the article and let me know what you think.