Ecofriendly Living Walls Take Root
ByUrban Gardens Make For Beautiful Ecofriendly Living
They’re called “living walls” and in this sustainable age, you’re sure to see them scaling up buildings in your city soon. Living Walls are either free-standing or part of a building, partially or completely covered with vegetation and, in some cases, growing in soil or an inorganic growing medium.
Living walls are sort of a natural extension to green-roofs which is an amazing ecofriendly living initiative gaining popularity in urban cores. Actually, a concentration of green-roofs and live-walls has proven to reduce a city’s summer temperature and reduce heat loss and energy consumption in winter conditions. They aren’t just pleasing to the eye but also to the mind, body and soul especially in dense urban area where trees and an abundance of other landscaping is not possible. Unlike green-roofs which are rarely seen and enjoyed by the public, living walls act as an artistic expansion of the design of a building. Sort of like “live art”. Apartment and condo owners with small patio or balconies can grow herbs and edible greens or create lush vertical gardens with their limited space.
Due to the growing interest in living walls, companies are marketing a variety of different systems that include everything you need to get started. All of them require regular maintenance such as watering, soil adjustments and fertilization. A small price to pay for so much good, so much beauty and so much ecofriendly living.
1 Comments
June 21st, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Great to see that living walls are catching on or are they clinging on?
What would be even greater is if we could easily use grey water to feed these living systems, thus reducing “waste” down the drain and the associated burdens on waste water treatment systems.
I installed a Biolytix waste treatment at our Eco Stay in new zealand which treats all wastewater from house and then allows sub surface irrigation of the treated water. It uses worms to break down all the “matter”! The biggest impediment to using systems like this in urban settings is the likes of local councils and the EPA.
A change of thinking is required, not just the same old lets build a building and connect it to the existing (crumbling!) services! The technology exists today to build sustainably incorporating such ideas such as living walls.
Brendan.
OffGridEcoStay.com