Verdant Surfaces

As the benefits of green walls and roofs become common knowledge, interest grows as rapidly as the vegetation
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From GreenSource
B.J. Novitski

Although ivy-covered walls are as old as antiquity, modern applications in North America are few and far between. One of the first in the United States was installed on the 1994 Finnish Embassy in Washington, D.C., by Helsinki-based Heikkinen-Komonen Architects. They designed a bronze trellis for climbing plants that stands out from the south wall to shade the glass and glass-block facade, diminishing the need for air- conditioning. The evergreen akebia was specified by Washington-based landscape architects Oehme, van Sweden & Associates.

The living wall at the Vancouver Aquarium was built to replicate native cliff ecology and educate visitors about the benefits of green walls.

Photo Sharp + Diamond Landscape Architecture

An Edible Wall

The other general category of vegetated walls is called a "living wall." Instead of climbers planted in the ground, plants are rooted in a growing medium attached to the wall, not unlike mosses and other species that thrive on cliff faces. A recent award-winning example is the living wall at the Vancouver (British Columbia) Aquarium, designed by Stantec Architecture and Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture. They devised a galvanized steel support structure anchored one inch from a windowless, east-facing concrete wall. No waterproofing was needed over the high-density concrete. G-SKY Green Wall Panels were placed into the frame. These 12-inch square polypropylene modules, 3−3/8 inches deep, had been preplanted in a nursery so that, unlike a green facade of climbing plants, this wall was completely green immediately after installation. In the future, individual modules can be easily removed and replaced if necessary.

The aquarium's vertical garden of hardy natives from the local temperate rainforest is irrigated and nourished by an automatic drip system fed from rooftop-collected rainwater. A gravel bed at the base provides drainage for any excess water. As at the California Academy of Sciences, this institution's vegetated surface educates the visiting public about ecology and sustainability. Two of the selected species-wild strawberry and evergreen huckleberry-are consumed by visiting children as well as birds. All the species, including ground cover, ferns, and wildflowers, were selected because they grow in a native habitat with wind and sun conditions similar to those of the aquarium building's walls.

The Vancouver Aquarium received a LEED Gold rating, in part because of this living wall. Architects can find potential points for vegetated surfaces in LEED categories of sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, and innovation in design.

 

B.J. Novitski writes about architectural practice and sustainability. She can be reached at bjn@efn.org.

 

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Originally published in GreenSource
Originally published in September 2008

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