15 Living Walls, Vertical Gardens & Sky Farms
Wed, May 21, 2008
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CaixaForum, Madrid, Spain
As the newest museum in Madrid, CaixaForum certainly takes innovation to the next level before you even walk into the place. One of the exterior walls features a huge 24 meter high vertical garden with over 15,000 plants from more than 250 different species. This artistic display is one of the finest examples of living walls anywhere in Spain.
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Vertical Gardens, Bangkok, Thailand
The vertical gardening phenomenon is spreading like wild fire across the globe, and it’s no different in Bangkok, Thailand. Check out these photos of two great examples of vertical gardening. The first two photos are at the Siam Paragon Shopping Center, and the second is a cool example of how strategically placing plants vertically alongside an elevator shaft at the Emporium Bangkok can add a nice decorative touch.
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Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
In front of the Guggenheim Art Museum you’ll find an awesome example of vertical gardening in the depiction of a puppy made entirely out of plants. The artist, Jeff Koons, created this 43-foot tall “plant puppy” in the mid-1990s using a steel substructure and a variety of plants. The detail of this piece is amazing.
ACROS Fukuoka Prefectural International Hall, Japan
The 100,000 square foot rooftop at the ACROS Fukuoka building is definitely one-of-a-kind. The 18 story building features 15 stepped terraces that can actually be climbed to the top. The terraces are meant to promote a serene and peaceful environment in the middle of the city with lots green plants and even waterfalls and small pools to add to the calming effect of the building’s extraordinary exterior.
Living Walls, Netherlands
This building is a great example of how you can spice up a boring exterior and turn it into a living and breathing wall. The plants are growing in a thin layer of felt and rock wool material instead of soil. Recycled rain water is pumped through this material to provide nutrients to the root systems of the plants.
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Future Vertical Sky Farm Designs
The idea of being able to save valuable space on the ground and to farm vertically has intrigued many designers, architects, and government officials. Sky farming saves space on the ground, can provide a year-round crop, and can be placed in the middle of the busiest cities in the world. With overpopulation, rocketing food prices and the migration to cities, traditional farming could soon become obsolete. This poses an interesting question: could these futuristic and green utopic visions become the standard, the new way to farm in the future?
We’d love to hear your thoughts.
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3 Trackbacks For This Post
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Business of Life Says:
May 24th, 2008 at 4:18 amLiving 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……
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BHV Homme Vertical Garden | Truth Dare Double Dare Says:
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:10 pm[...] 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 [...]
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10 Incredible Living Walls Says:
March 11th, 2009 at 2:48 pm[...] 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