LIVING WALLS Pioneered by Patrick Blanc, a living wall is an amazing new way to bring nature into architecture. The idea is to create vertical gardens on the facades of buildings. It is done using a three part system of PVC, felt and metal frames to create a lightweight and soil free vertical garden. They are not limited to the outside of buildings though an can be used comfortably within them too. They can be used for whole buildings or just for specific sections, as shown in the second image. I prefer the use of them on specific sections, they almost work like feature walls and introduce a welcome area of greenery which can be used to attract people to an area. The living walls are good for our environment too, creating cleaner air. I would love to use such an idea in my design, perhaps encouraging plants to grow amongst the building. When researching the subject, I found that vines have a good tendency for providing privacy in gardens by taking over fences and reducing how harsh they can look in natural environments. Ivy can do a similar thing. Perhaps growing such plants amongst my designs would be ideal creating a living wall for the observation tower whilst still using only timber. The image at the bottom is a screenshot of just part of one of two tables which I found on the internet which state various plants, their type, flowering period and any extra features which they possess such as evergreen or scent. It is a list of ‘climbing plants for walls and fences’. I think it may come in very useful and it can be found at http://www.thompson-morgan.com/plants-for-walls-and-fences. |