SWA Architects is a globally recognized firm specializing in landscape architecture, urban design, and planning, aiming to create eco-friendly, visually appealing, and socially beneficial spaces. Key projects include the Burj Khalifa's extensive outdoor landscaping and the California Academy of Sciences' innovative living roof, both celebrating sustainability while enhancing user experience. The firm employs cutting-edge research, indigenous plant integration, and effective water management strategies in its designs to improve community livability and environmental stewardship.

1. SWA Architects
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND URBAN DESIGN
PRESENTED BY – ANJALI.S
1GQ15AT008

2. INTRODUCTION
• SWA is a Landscape architecture, urban design and planning firm, with a network of
seven studios worldwide.
• Aim: To create vibrant places that are once ecologically resilient, aesthetically
compelling and socially beneficial.
• The parent firm of SWA group was Sasaki, Peter Walker and Associates established in
1957
• SWA involves the design of landscapes at a variety of scales—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.

3. INTRODUCTION
• SWA’s landscape architectural work has received worldwide recognition for its
innovative excellence.
• SWA provides land planning and master planning.
• Their plans make sensitive use of topography, landform, natural resources,
vegetation, infrastructure and buildings, resulting in more livable and sustainable
projects.
• This approach can nurture new directions for the master planning of communities,
campuses, workplaces, civic and commercial districts, transit-oriented
developments, waterfronts, recreation, and natural system restoration.

4. BURJ KHALIFA
• LOCATION - Dubai
• SIZE - 11 hectares
• VITALS
• 15 million gallons of condensation from air
conditioners irrigates plants every year.
• Distinct circulation routes direct visitors to the
hotel, residential, and office areas.
• Indigenous plants and Islamic geometries honour
the site's cultural context.

5. LANDSCAPE
VIEW
Showing main court
arrival, hotel entry arrival.
Residential entry arrival

6. INTRODUCTION
• The Burj Khalifa is a celebration of rigorous design, construction, and, most of all,
possibility.
• The 27-acre "green oasis" features plazas, gardens, pools and promenades in a
human-scaled setting that grounds the world's tallest building.
• In the middle of an extreme desert climate, the landscape architects forged a new
baseline for design achievement, while creating a lasting model of environmental
efficiency and sensitivity.

7. • 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 through an repetitive 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.
• All site furnishings, from railings to benches and signs, incorporate the abstracted
imagery of the spider lily and other patterns from nature, true to the historic
traditions of Islamic architecture and design. Shade trees give comfort, and a rich
plant palette of succulents, flowering trees, and other species suited to the area’s
extreme temperatures create beauty, interest and character in the Tower Park
landscape.
INTRODUCTION

8. Pattern of banding including
concentric and radiating arcs,
criss-crossing lines, and a cool
grey palette of granite to
convey a feeling of comfort
through the seasons.

10. MASTER
PLAN

11. MAIN ENTRY WATER
COURT ARRIVAL
• Palm tree Bosque
• Water fountain petals
• Special stone paving
• Water veil room

12. • 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 patterns establish a
strong sense of place for each court.
MAIN ENTRY WATER COURT ARRIVAL

13. The main entry drive is a granite roundabout circled by date palms, with a central fountain
and three peripheral fountains, looking like the feature of a face when seen from above.

15. HOTEL ENTRY ARRIVAL
• Garden arrival room
• Entry fountain
• Circular glass wall with
night illumination
• Special stone paving in
mosaic pattern and
intricate banding
• Cobble stone driveway
• Seasonal colours in
radial pattern
• Central palm grove

16. HOTEL ENTRY ARRIVAL

18. RESIDENTIAL ENTRY ARRIVAL
• Garden arrival room
• Entry fountain
• Circular stone texture wall
• Special flowering tree
grove
• Special stone paving in
mosaic pattern and
intricate banding
• Cobble stone driveway
• Seasonal colours in radial
pattern
• Central palm grove

19. RESIDENTIAL
ENTRY
ARRIVAL

20. WATER GARDEN GRAND
TERRACE
• Planes of reflecting water
pool cascading with gravity
flow
• Slopped garden walks with
flowering borders
• Outdoor eating island
incorporating major canopy
• Landscape flowering
intersect with water

21. • 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 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.
WATER GARDEN GRAND TERRACE

23. WATER FRONT PROMENADE
• Palm lined walkway
• Seating steps
• Special stone paving @
promenade edge
• Steps for water edge
• Special lighting for
illumination

27. SPA/ SPORTS/ RECREATION
TERRACE
• Amphitheatre
• Tennis court
• Bocce courts
• Kids water play
• Water garden terrace

28. GRAND GARDEN TERRACE
ZONE
• Grand viewing deck
• Water feature- upper
terrace cascade to lower
terrace
• Special garden parterre
with fixed informal
seating
• Special stone paving with
mosaic pattern
• Special indigenous
flowering shade tree

29. FEATURES
• Multiple entries and drop-offs, service access points,
garage and structural considerations, and public versus
private entrances were just some of the many circulation
nodes considered on the ground level, prompting the
design of clear navigation and wayfinding graphics to
direct visitors towards building entrances as well as
public oasis, cooling, and garden areas.
• Cultural and social customs yielded interwoven
circulation and outdoor rooms; local artistic traditions
showed up in the use of Islamic patterning as a recurring
motif; and finally, an indigenous plant palette maximized
scarce water resources and minimized the need for deep
soil.

31. FEATURES
• The major organizing element of the project is Burj
Khalifa Boulevard; a 3.5 kilometer “loop” road, which
provides access to all elements of the project.
• It connects all major destinations and activities,
establishing a world-class street on par with the Champs-
Élysées, Park Avenue or the Ramblas. The interplay of
landscape and architecture makes this happen.
• Tightly spaced, double rows of date palms create shade
and scale while allowing views to retail frontages and
establishing a module for street fairs and gatherings.
• The palms extend as a green colonnade that conveys
scale, identity, and connection to the dominant tower
within its park.

32. CHARLESTON PARK
• The design of SGI's campus and Charleston Park
challenges conventional thinking about public
and private space.
• The project began as the winning entry in a
competition held by the City of Mountain View
to develop the 26-acre brownfield site with an
R&D campus and a five-acre public park.
• The design creates a strong identity for the
campus and provides a much- needed civic
space, while blurring distinctions between the
private and public realms

33. INTRODUCTION
• The landscape architects collaborated closely with the architects, developer and city
from master planning through implementation, and played an essential role in
securing public approvals.
• This creative collaboration led to two key planning decisions: first, to treat the
campus and park as one landscape; and second, because of the large building
footprints, to assert the presence of the landscape by raising the buildings and
locating most of the 1,700 parking spaces below podium level.
• At the east and west ends of the project, the landscape slopes up to the podium
from natural grade, providing a seamless connection from the park on the east
through the campus to the improved creek corridor on the west.

34. SITE PLAN

35. This five-acre public park was developed in conjunction with the adjoining 20-acre
SGI Campus (now Google Corporate Headquarters). A plaza and water feature
integrate the two open spaces, while resolving a twelve foot grade change between
the park and the SGI courtyard which sits atop an 1,100 car garage. The project was
awarded an ASLA Centennial Medallion, as one of the most significant landscapes of
the past century.
CHARLESTON PARK

36. FEATURES
• The landscape, like the architecture, is designed
to reflect the purpose of SGI and its unofficial
corporate philosophy of "serious fun."
• The coexistence of pleasure and work is ensured
by the character of outdoor spaces and further
expressed by the two formal systems that shape
circulation through the site.
• Sweeping curves suggest leisure. Straight lines,
derived from the building column grid, express
efficiency.

37. FEATURES
• At the lower level of the park, a brick plaza provides
for frequent concerts and civic gatherings.
• The plaza's bold striped pattern continues up the
slope through a series of terraces and shallow pools.
• Rows of cherry trees and horsetail reinforce the
graphic clarity of the composition.
• The presence of water suggests the fluid boundary
between the park and campus.
• A grove of Grecian laurels at the top of the slope
marks the literal, although imperceptible, line
between public and private land.

38. FEATURES
• A sinuous yellow brick path ties the campus' three
gardens together.
• The contemplative East Garden's circular mounds
echo the Calaveros Hills seen in the distance
beyond.
• The Central Garden is a place where the entire SGI
community can gather. Since this space cannot
structurally support the weight of trees, umbrellas
become the vertical shade-giving elements.

39. FEATURES
• The West Garden is devoted to recreation, and
a volleyball court within a grove of elms is in
constant use.
• Just to the north, a bocce court is contained
within a small, elegant, rectangular garden.
• Within each of the major gardens, at the
building stair towers, the ground is cut away to
create openings which naturally ventilate the
garage without the need for mechanical
equipment.

40. FEATURES
• The project redevelops a brownfield site,
creates a new city park, and gives a new
identity to this area of the city.
• Finally, the design of the S.G.I. campus
departs emphatically from the convention
of the corporate campus as private
compound encircled by parking.
• Instead, the buildings open to receive the
landscape that flows uninterrupted
between private and public space.

41. California Academy of Sciences

42. INTRODUCTION
• LOCATION - San Francisco, California, US
• SCOPE - Landscape Architecture
• SIZE - 9.5 Acres
• Main purpose of this building is to provide
education and trigger interest to people in
science. It has exhibition about natural history
and other museums. The academy institute
also provide place for researchers. They have
different fields as background and the institute
publishes journal

43. INTRODUCTION
• One of San Francisco’s first sustainable building projects, the California Academy of
Sciences supports a stunning 2.5-acre green roof. Emphasizing habitat quality and
connectivity, the project has received two LEED Platinum certifications.
• 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.

44. VITALS
• World's largest "Double Platinum" LEED
building
• Native plants carpet green roof,
attracting butterflies, birds, and insects
• Roof is designed to thrive on natural,
not mechanical irrigation sources
• Photovoltaic cells line the roof to collect
solar energy that helps power the
museum

45. DESIGN CONCEPT
• 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.
• This “living roof” is covered with 1,700,000 selected autochthonous plants planted
in specially conceived biodegradable coconut-fiber containers.
• The piazza is partly covered with glass to create a microclimate enabling year-round
use.

46. • 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 air-conditioning in the
ground-floor public areas and the research offices along the facade..
DESIGN CONCEPT

48. TOP VIEW

49. FRONT VIEW

50. • 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
A gabion is a cage, cylinder, or box filled with
rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil for
use in landscaping for erosion control
Coconut hull
planting trays
ROOF DESIGN

52. • 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.
ROOF DESIGN

53. CONCLUSION
• The plants were also selected to attract local butterflies, birds and insects, some of
them endangered.
• Additionally, the drainage system recycles all storm water runoff back into the water
table
• 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.

54. SECTION

55. SECTION

56. • vegetation - grass ground cover
• anti- erosion/ fabric tissue
• soil
• vegetation mat
• water retention membrane
• insulation
• light weight concrete
• expanded metal sheet
photovoltaic
panels on south
facing slope

57. VIEWS
NIGHT VIEW
DOME VIEW WITH SKYLIGHTS
DOME INTERIOR
VIEW OF RAIN
FOREST