Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Green walls

It's everywhere... it's more than a trend, it's a "green trend".
More and more, we are seeing green walls, aka living walls or vertical gardens.





Living walls or green walls are self sufficient vertical gardens that are attached to the exterior or interior of a building. They differ from green façades (e.g. ivy walls) in that the plants root in a structural support which is fastened to the wall itself. The plants receive water and nutrients from within the vertical support instead of from the ground.
This excerpt is from "www.greenovergrey.com", a Canadian company the specializes in green walls.
It's quite a fascinating project that creates no damage to the exterior or interior wall. It comes with an automatic irrigation system and is hydroponic (soil less). SOLD!


What is amazing as well, is that frames are used to group the plants together, which allows you create patterns and designs:









In addition to aesthetics, there are many other benefits in having a green wall:
  • indoor air quality (purifies air)
  • LEED credits
  • reduces stress and enhance wellbeing
  • building protection
  • energy savings by cooling the inside air
  • accoustics
Green walls accommodate floral perennials, foliage plants, small shrubs, moss and succulents, making a green wall design interesting and dynamic.

Here are some Canadian applications:

Edmonton's International Airport


ING Cafe - Downtown Toronto

Surrey - BC, Library - Largesy living wall in North America


And why not throw some more amazing residential  and commercial applications:













Now do you want one? I do :-)
After doing some online research, succulents seem to be the best suitable type of plants to create a more "urban"/"easy to maintain" green wall. 
This link has a great DIY project using succulents. The results are amazing:







Not too far from Toronto, in Niagara Falls Urban Oasis Tropical Plantscapes offers a great variety of services, including green walls, free standing or fixed.


Hope you got inspired as much as I did and that next time you see one, you go: wow! genius! 

Theo Flamenbaum
- Style + Function + Love + You - 









1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing the information and this is really a great thing as, with the concept of green building it has now become easy for the architects and builders to construct the buildings by using green materials in the construction.

    To construct and protect the environment there are many companies who are providing green educational videos for architects and builders which is helping them to construct beautiful and attractive green building and while surfing on internet, I came across a site named as logicalgreeninstitute.com who is providing the service of green educational video for developing different green projects.

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