Friederike Well

Blue-green architecture (BGA) describes buildings and open spaces that combine nature-based and technical systems of vegetation and urban water management. This creates positive effects on the urban climate, public health, biodiversity, and water balance. In this study, a design strategy for BGA is applied and evaluated on a practical project. The project consists of an interdisciplinary course in which students of architecture and landscape architecture designed and implemented a BGA for a school garden in Munich, Germany. The students worked in an interdisciplinary planning team in which they took on different roles and responsibilities (blue/green/integration). As a result, the design was put into practice by their own hands and a nature-based system was built. The greywater from the school garden is now treated in a constructed wetland and, in combination with rainwater, feeds into a redesigned pond. Biodiversity was increased and a contribution to the environmental education of the pupils was made. The students demonstrated high learning success. Finally, the design strategy for BGA was positively evaluated using a design-based research approach and additional points were added for future applications.

Blue-green architecture entails buildings that contribute to improving the urban climate through the synergetic combination of water management and vegetation. They are part of an urban blue-green infrastructure network that combines ecosystem services in a multifunctional way. Projects implemented in an interdisciplinary manner create synergies with regard to the combination of water-related and vegetation-related objectives. However, applicable design strategies for this approach are currently lacking in practice. This paper investigates the approach of a blue-green architectural project in Stuttgart (the so called “Impulse Project”) and derives insights for an integrated design strategy. The analysis and transfer of the research is carried out by using the research by design methodology. For this purpose, the interdisciplinary design process is divided into three phases (pre-design, design, post-design) and described in detail. Reflection on the documented design reveals the knowledge gained and enables the transfer of the findings to future projects by means of the integrated design strategy for blue-green architecture.