More businesses today are looking to green walls as a way to add natural beauty while dramatically improving energy efficiency.
These vertical structures are proving to have a remarkable ability to moderate indoor air temperatures and humidity levels.
Green walls, also referred to as living walls or vertical gardens, are walls that are free standing or part of a building partially or completely covered with a vegetative facade. Inspired landscape and interior designers seek to give their clients something dynamic. Green walls provide an inspired palette for landscape architects to harness and cultivate the power of nature to best serve their clients.
As living walls are becoming popular means for green businesses to showcase their environmental stewardship, a multitude of green wall systems are hitting the market. Some are functional and will provide long-term solutions. Others will not.
Designing, building and installing beautiful yet functional and environmentally beneficial green walls takes experience and practice. In a buyer-beware marketplace, it's important to invest in a living wall system that has a proven track record of sustainability and to select an installer who has a well documented history of successful installations with full-scale maintenance capabilities to warrant both plants and irrigation.
Living plants require water, nutrients and light to survive. High-quality commercial vertical gardens come complete with their own "life support" system comprised of a supporting structure, a quality growing medium, an irrigation/fertilization system, and a drainage system to properly dispose of or re-circulate the spent water.
So basically, it's not unlike a water-recycling system most growers use in their production houses – it's just a closed system placed vertically on a wall.
Proper selection and design of a system for a particular locale necessitates plumbing and electrical considerations. Understanding the lighting needs required for the selected plants is also crucial for sustainability.
Keys to success
Just like growing crops in your greenhouses, there are many factors that go into maintaining longevity and success with a living wall. Here are some major considerations.
Location. The location of your living wall is significant, from both a visual and mechanical standpoint. Is your desired location accessible to plumbing and electrical?
What is the infrastructure of the supporting wall? Is the green wall framing attaching to concrete, metal or marble?
With the right infrastructure in place, nearly any location is suitable for a green wall. But count on the cost of construction to go up considerably if the desired location, for example, has no available water or natural light.
 LEFT: Green walls provide an inspired palette for landscape architects to harness and cultivate the power of nature to best serve their clients. RIGHT: The location of your living wall is significant, not only from a visual standpoint but from a mechanical point of view. |
Lighting. Most interior living walls require supplemental lighting. Providing healthy lighting for plants requires someone who not only knows the light requirements of specific plant species, but can perform light studies and collaborate with the electrician to specify fixtures to meet those requirements.
Metal halide light fixtures and lamps provide the closest to natural sunlight and promotes photosynthesis. Adding photo luminescent sensors to the green wall can reduce the electric consumption. When the sensors detect plants have enough available lights without supplemental help, the additional light fixtures can be turned off automatically.
Plant selection. Selecting the best plants for any green wall will depend on microclimate conditions, plant growth habits and available light. An exterior, north-facing wall requires an entirely different plant palette than a south- or west-facing wall.
Also, featured plants on exterior walls in the arid Southwest differ from what can be used in the cold Midwest. Plants for interior walls are chosen to reflect low-, medium- and high-light scenarios.
Most interior tropical plants require a minimum of 10-12 hours of at least 150 footcandles of light per day to flourish. In a typical commercial hotel environment, there is on average about 30-40 footcandles of light compared to 5,000-10,000 outside on a sunny day.
 Designing, building and installing beautiful yet functional and environmentally beneficial green walls takes practice. |
Interior plants that thrive in low light (75-150 footcandles) include the different varieties of philodendron and green and variegated pothos.
Medium-light plants (100-250 footcandles) include the Dallas fern, Cretan brake fern, rabbit's-foot fern, and different species of begonia and Peperomia species. For interior Schefflera environments with maximum light (150-250 footcandles), try plants such as the alocasia, Hedera ivy, purple waffle plants and creeping fig.
Most people today spend 90 percent of their time indoors with about half of the world's population living in cities. Green walls improve a building's air quality and enhance people's emotional and physical well being. Green walls act as acoustic barriers countering the noise pollution that can plague urban environments.
Green walls harmonize buildings with nature like no other structure, and are bound to be interior and exterior landscape staples for years and years to come.
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Why green walls? There are many advantages to these structures, but here are some of the best reasons to invest in green walls. Welcome Wagon. It's hard not to be in awe of the beauty of a living wall. Whether showcased in an interior setting, such as in a hospital, hotel or commercial lobby, or on the outside façade of a building, green walls make environments look more attractive and welcoming. Syed Hasan, general manager at Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown Lakefront, unveiled Chicago's largest indoor green wall in his hotel's sky lobby in June 2011. He believes that the new green wall rolls out a green welcome wagon to all guests and visitors. "Not only is our green wall beautiful to behold but it actively improves the lifestyle of people in urban environments as the average person spends a majority of their time indoors," he said. "Our green wall also assists in reducing noise levels as plants absorb sound and improve energy efficiency by moderating indoor temperatures and humidity levels." Fresh Air. Vertical gardens provide positive impacts to their environments. Foliage plants significantly improve indoor air quality by moderating temperature and humidity levels and filtering the air to remove harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs have significant vapor pressures that can be dangerous to human health and have adverse effects on the environment. The EPA has found concentrations of VOCs in indoor air two to five times greater than what is found in outdoor air. Sources of anthropogenic (man-made) VOCs include new furnishings, wall and floor coverings, and office equipment including printers. In the span of a year, a 50-square-foot vertical garden can consume as much carbon dioxide as a 14-foot tree. The wall will also remove as much as one pound of dust from the air per square foot. Sign post value. Living walls can provide a living barrier that gently guides people where you want them to go. In many buildings there is a need to channel pedestrian traffic toward landmarks including check-in desks, escalators and common passageways. This is particularly important in premises with large, open areas such as those found in airports, hospitals, universities and large commercial spaces. Living walls provide natural divides and reference points that make any space come alive with vitality. Covering unsightly areas. Many buildings have features that are best kept covered, such as harsh structural elements, service areas and storage facilities. Vertical gardens, with their wide range of size, shape, habit and leaf form, can provide an elegant solution that is both attractive and functional. If properly designed and implemented, a green wall may positively affect securing certain LEED credits. Fashion. Interior space planning is a fashion-driven business, and nothing "strikes a pose" more handsomely than an artful, living wall. Interior living walls bring nature indoors, important especially in urban areas where most people spend more time inside commercial or residential buildings. People are naturally attracted to plants and gravitate toward living walls where the sensory experience is captivating. Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pa., created the largest green wall in North America as part of the botanical garden's new East Conservatory Plaza last year. The East Conservatory Plaza features a terraced lawn, lush new plantings and the colossal green wall. This vertical garden features a panel wall system across a green-wall surface area of 3,590 square feet. It's planted with more than 25 species of plants. "The East Conservatory Plaza embraces innovative landscape design, which captures the very essence of Longwood Gardens," said Paul Redman, Longwood Gardens director. "The size and beauty of the green wall amazes and delights our guests as well as advances our continuing commitment to sound environmental practices." |
Denise Eichmann is senior project manager and design expert for Ambius, www.ambius.com, denise.eichmann@ambius.com.
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