Wed, May 21, 2008
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Parabienta Living Wall System, Japan
This living wall is manufactured and marketed by two Japanese companies that have created a product that is lightweight, cheap, and very functional. The living wall is called ‘Parabienta‘, and it costs approximately $60 per square foot. This eco-friendly wall will significantly cool down a building through a naturally occurring cooling process that takes place within the plants – otherwise known as shade.
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Paris, France – A Vertical Garden Mecca
The ‘city of love’ is a sort of vertical garden hotspot, and it’s becoming increasingly popular and mainstream to ‘decorate’ a bland wall with a plethora of beautiful plants, whether it be for artistic purposes or for more functional eco-friendly intentions. Much of the reason that Paris is such a vertical garden mecca is the fact that one of the founding fathers of the art form, Patrick Blanc, lives there. He, and other living wall artists have created some amazing vertical gardens in France’s capital city.
Foundation Cartier
The plant wall at the entrance of the Foundation Cartier has not been trimmed since it was planted back in 1998. The only maintenance of this beautiful garden involves a gardener coming in about every 2-3 months to remove dead leaves, or whole plants, and replace them with new ones.
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BHV Homme
The vertical garden at this popular Parisian department store literally adds life to the back of BHV Homme in Paris. This artistic living wall almost resembles an abstract painting from afar.
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Pershing Hall Hotel
Nestled in the courtyard of the Pershing Hall Hotel is a 30 meter high vertical garden that features over 250 different plant species. It’s quite a site, to say the least!
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Club Med Champs-Elysees
The small vertical garden at this Club Med in Paris is designed to represent plants from 5 different continents. The addition of the vertical garden at this Club Med location is all part of a plan to create a more upscale feel for the already first-class resort. The garden is visible from outside and is beautifully lit at night.
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“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else.”
Living Walls, Art of Green by Blanc …
Patrick Blanc, an unusual combination of artist and scientist, pioneered the art of living walls, or vertical gardens in Paris. “He’s a curious character because he is the symbiosis of a scientist, an artist and a communicator,” said Stéphane……
[...] back entrance to stock up on agnès b. Definitely something we would like to see more of in the cities. Gridskipper has a nice couple of links to other vertical gardens in [...]
[...] SkyFarm [...]
May 21st, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Ahh, love this post! Thank you! :)
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:07 am
newyork could really use some of this ideas…
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:34 am
I don’t see how some of those skyscraper farms would work.. how would they get light to all of the levels?
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Maybe you could grow some weed on one of the levels and noone would notice?
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Uhm, where would the roots go?
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
so beautifull stuff :)
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Here is a vertical garden at the Caixa Forum in Madrid, Spain:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9167719@N07/2288963522/
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
now thats what i call the future.
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:01 am
the process with the plants that produces the cooling effect is not “shade” although the shade does provide some cooling, it actually is called “transpriation”, it is the process of the plant taking in water and air, and exhaling thru the leaves that causes the cooling, kind of like a living “evaporative cooler”
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:03 am
Wow! This is really th future! Simply love this especially the Toronto Sky Farm.
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:53 am
it looks like design is preempting the post-human world. gorgeous stuff, makes traditional vine coverings look oh so passe…
May 24th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Hehe, the Musee is quite awesome!
May 24th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
I love this idea. I’ve been trying to promote its use in the city I live in but so far no one is willing to try it.
I guess I need to do more research on techniques and such. I’ll definitely be looking into the one company that was mentioned.
May 25th, 2008 at 12:22 am
salams (peace) this technique is definitely the way forward, as more and more people from rural populations in the developing world as well as all the overpopulated cities we have over here, are in dire need of an overhaul of the land use, all those old buildings could be ’spruced up’ bringing our cities into the 221st century. harry this is one idea i am also hoping to implement as a project-funding and all, pray it happens.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
super!!
check out singapore changi airport terminal 3 — green wall 50 ft high by 1,000 feet long is the centerpiece of the terminal building.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
And that’s what the future should look like! Let’s eliminate polluting and cruel animal agriculture – launch ourselves into the 21st century with plenty of sustainable (and healthy) food for all! Go Vegan!
July 24th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
I really want to see this project succeed because I think this is could be a solution to are rising food shortage…I am trying to get the first working tower built: http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/vertical-farm-in-new-york-city
November 7th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
awesome article,love this idea
March 21st, 2009 at 4:50 am
That is absolutely amazing. So finally we have an alternative to a grey wall – green wall art.
March 24th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
The walls with living plants are pretty, but can be distructive to the brick, morter and other construction of the buildings. I know as English Ivy can grow right thru the grout on windows.
March 26th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
This is Great Chris, thankyou for your outstanding work. I am so excited to have found so much info all at once.
April 1st, 2009 at 1:53 am
amazing. i think urban farming like 99problems would do amazing things if it was developed correctly Bebo.com/99ProblemsDotOrg
June 21st, 2009 at 4:57 am
I have fifteen Living Walls mint for trade… Oh wait, wrong thread.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:43 pm
This is a good sign towards the future and technology is here today to get the first steps going. Today we have fish farms that leave natural populations of fish alone while supplying humans with the fish consumption that they need. Check out this high-tech fish farm off the coast of hawaii that’s making some headlines:
http://www.americasheartland.org/episodes/episode_117/aqua_culture.htm
July 17th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
This is the coolest thing since sliced bread!
October 31st, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Man.. some cool looking wall gardens. I wonder how many of them actually exist