Thursday 1 September 2011

Vertical Gardens

Green walls! Such a beautiful and functional idea!  Green walls or vertical gardens are walls (indoor or outdoor) completely covered with soil and vegetation.  They are created by this rad french dude named Patrick Blanc (who also died his hair green and is constantly wearing an outrageous flower/plant print shirt) who rapels down the side of buildings and adorns them with plants. 
Madrid
Hong Kong
Sweden

Paris

Paris

Green walls in urban areas reduce temperatures of buildings they grow on. The primary cause of heat build-up in cities is the absorption of solar radiation by roads and buildings in the city, the storage of this heat in building material, and its subsequent re-radiation. Plant surfaces do not rise more than 4–5 °C above the ambient and are sometimes cooler.
Green walls may also be a means for water reuse. The plants may purify slightly polluted water by absorbing the dissolved nutrients. Bacteria mineralize the organic components to make them available to the plants.

They look beautiful, cut down on warming, and recycle water.  Everone wins!


1 comment:

  1. So cool! There is an amazing bar in wellington called foxglove which has a green wall, but inside!

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