SWA LANDSCAPE Landscape Architecture

ARCHITECTS
SWA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
SWA is a landscape architecture, urban design and
planning firm, with a network of seven studios worldwide.
Their aim is to create vibrant places that are ecologically
resilient, aesthetically compelling and socially beneficial.
Sasaki, Peter Walker And Associates was the parent firm of
the SWA group and was established in1957.
The firm designs a variety of landscapes from large multi-
functional sites to small, intimate spaces. Innovative
research into materials, lifestyles and landscape
technologies coupled with a deep understanding of how
people use outdoor spaces informs their unique design
process.
 PROJECTS
• Burj Khalifa, Dubai
• Samsung Headquarters, San Jose, California
• Google Headquarters, California
• Charleston Park, California
• California Academy Of Sciences, San Francisco

Burj Khalifa, Dubai

Samsung Headquarters Google Headquarters California Academy Of Sciences

BURJ KHALIFA, DUBAI
• Site area: 11 acres.
• The Burj Khalifa tower was designed with
the three “petals” of the “spider lily”
Hymenocallis in mind. The Park design
reiterates that design focus, with intricate
and beautiful patterning found in Middle
Eastern art, architecture and gardens.
• Indigenous plants and local stone paving
are woven into three complex geometric
patterns reminiscent of spider lilies and
formal gardens of Persian Gulf.
• The “green oasis” features plazas, gardens,
pools and promenades in human-scaled
settings that surrounds the huge building.
• In the middle of an extreme desert climate,
the landscape architects made a new
baseline for design achievement, while
creating a lasting model of environmental
efficiency and sensitivity.
 • Playing on the theme of “A tower in a park”,
the shaded landscape creates a compelling
oasis of green with distinct areas to serve the
tower’s hotel, residential, spa and corporate
office areas.
• The visitor begins at the main arrival court at
the base of the tower, where the “prow” of
the building intersects a grand circular
court—a “water room” defined by fountains,
palms and park trees.
• From here, entry roads lead through the
park-like landscape to separate hotel and
residential arrival courts.
• Vehicular circulation spirals down to garage
level, while flowering trees and seasonal
plantings, fountains, and distinct paving
1. Arrival court 7. Water Feature patterns establish a strong sense of place for
2. Armani hotel entry 8. Children’s Play Area
3. Residential entry 9. Recreation Area each court.
4. Viewing Deck 10. Service Yard
5. Lakefront promenade 11. Office Entry
6. Tower Garden

Hotel Entry Arrival:
• This is the northeast side of the Burj
Khalifa tower with its own distinctive
landscape patterning of palms and
succulents, with a roundabout and
curlicue entrance to the
subterranean parking for guests of
the Armani Hotel.
• From the hotel dropoff at the tower
park, radial paving paterns
emanate and extend into the
landscaping bads that integrate
with the traffic circle
Main Entry Water court Arrival
Granite Roundabout circled by
date palms, with a central fountain
and 3 peripheral fountains.
Residential Entry Arrival:
• The bed plantings include shrubs and
groundcover of Ficus microcarpa
‘Green Island’, Jasminum sambac
‘Arabian Jasmine’ Pennistum
alopecuroides ‘Hameln’(dwarf
fountain grass) and Quisqualis indica
‘Rangoon Creeper’.
• The inspirationis from native plants and
traditional Islamic patterns.
• On the lake side, the Grand Terrace
celebrates the scale and importance of
the tower with a series of large reflecting
pools that cascade from upper terraces Waterfront Promenade
to the lake itself.
• Comfortable walkways define the infinity-
edge pools and invite a leisurely walk.
• More direct walkways lead to the same
connections, offering a variety of
pedestrian routes to the Khalifa mall,
Island Park, residential towers and hotels,
and promenades that border the entire
edge of the lake.
• These outdoor spaces create a front door
to the tower, serving the various uses and
reflecting the building’s unique forms.
• In particular, the plaza that encircles the tower expresses the key imagery of the
hymenocallis, or spider lily, through an iterative pattern of banding including concentric
and radiating arcs, criss-crossing lines, and a cool gray palette of granite to convey a
feeling of comfort through the seasons.
• The region’s extreme climate offers unique opportunities for synergy between the tower
and the surrounding landscape infrastructure. For instance, the hot and humid outside
air, combined with the chilled water cooling system of the building, results in a significant
amount of condensation.
• Every year, fifteen million gallons
of condensed water will be
collected, drained, and pumped
into the site irrigation system for
use within the Tower Park.
• Tightly spaces, double rows of date
palms create shade and scale while
allowing views to retail frontages
and establishing a module for street
fairs and gatherigs.
• The palms extend as a green
colonnade that coveys scale,
identity and connection to the
dominant tower within its park.
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES,
SAN FRANCISCO
• Location: San Francisco, California
• Size: Site- 9.5 Acres
• One of San Francisco’s first sustainable
building projects, the California
Academy of Sciences supports a
stunning 2.5-acre green roof.
• The building’s architectural team, the
Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW),
invited SWA Group and horticultural
consultant Paul Kephart, of Rana Creek
Living Architecture, to collaborate on the
design of the living roof. SWA Group
provided full landscape architectural
services for the living roof and site.
• The main purpose of this building is to provide education and
trigger interest to people in science.
• It has an exhibition about natural history and other museums.
• The academy also provides space for researchers.
• RPBW’s concept lifts the natural landscape three stories up
and places it on top of the building, creating a dramatic
living roof.
• The vegetated roof’s contours conform to the facilities,
offices, and exhibition halls below—rising above the
planetarium and the rain forest exhibit and lowering at the
central piazza to introduce light and air into the heart of the
building.
• The piazza is partly covered with glass to create a
microclimate enabling year-round use.
• The living roof is covered with 17,00,000 selected
autochthonous plats planted in specially conceived
biodegradable coconut fibre containers
• The roof is flat at its perimeter and like a natural
landscape becomes increasingly undulating as it
moves away from the edge to form a series of domes
of various sizes rising up from the roof plane.
• The two main domes cover the planetarium and
rainforest exhibitions. The domes are speckled with a
pattern of skylights automated to open and close for
ventilation.
• The soil’s moisture, combined with the phenomenon
of thermal inertia, cools the inside of the museum
significantly, thus avoiding the need for
airconditioning in the ground floor public areas and
the research offices along the façade.
• Following Renzo Piano’s original concept drawing, the roof’s seven hills
are intended to echo the seven major hills of San Francisco. Because the
hills are as steep as 60 degrees in some places, and thus difficult to plant,
extensive testing was done. The SWA and Rana Creek partnership
designed full-scale models to test the anchoring systems and the multi-
layered soil-drainage network that forms the foundation for the plant
materials.
• An underlying grid of gabion channels provides water drainage and
support for the compressed coconut hull planting trays. Plants are first
sown in trays off-site. When they’re established, trucks outfitted with
special racks transfer them to the site. The plant trays, which always
contain three native species, are then hoisted atop the roof and laid
by hand over insulating and waterproofing materials inside the
gabion channel grid. The trays also
provide their own temporary
support structure until the plants
become well established on the
rooftop. Over time, the trays
disintegrate and become part of
the soil system.
• A model of technical and natural systems working
harmoniously, the roof features numerous sustainable design
elements. The California native plants that carpet the
building were chosen for their adaptability to the Bay Area’s
seasonal irrigation cycle. The plants were also selected to
attract local butterflies, birds and insects, some of them
endangered. The roof is designed to thrive on natural, not
mechanical irrigation sources. Additionally, the drainage
system recycles all storm water runoff back into the water
table. The roof generates sustainable energy as well.
Photovoltaic cells line the roof perimeter, collecting solar
energy to help power the Academy.
• Plants selected for the roof: Prunella vulgaris, California
poppies, miniature lupines, California plantain, California
goldfield, tidy tips, pink sea, Stonecrop.
• As part of its commitment to sustainability, the Academy has
reduced the building’s physical footprint and the surrounding
pavement by approximately 1.5 acres. This land will be re-
established as park gardens.