Transforming Urban Spaces with Vertical Gardens

While vertical gardens and living walls are not new concepts, as the demand for sustainable and biophilic properties remains, designers and architects continue to innovate and enhance their version of creative landscaping. 

This article looks at innovative vertical gardens and green wall designs that represent this ongoing shift to integrate nature into built environments. It looks at how to rejuvenate urban areas and inject greenery into buildings to create more eco-friendly, inviting and attractive spaces.

What are vertical gardens and living walls?

Vertical gardens, living walls or green walls have a long and rich history, dating back to the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon to the grape vines depicted in Greek columns, entwined in ancient buildings of Mediterranean descent. The first patent for a living wall was registered in 1938 by French botanist Patrick Blanc in the late 20th century. They have since become a mainstream design with various sophisticated systems and techniques, including:

• Modular panel systems - pre-planted panels that can be easily installed and replaced.
• Felt pocket systems - lightweight felt pockets filled with growing medium and plants.
• Container, pergola, and trellis systems - traditional planters combined with climbing structures.
• Hydroponic systems - soil-less systems that use nutrient-rich water to sustain plant growth.

In the broad architectural sense, these are all designs that enable plants to grow vertically along the surface of a building or freestanding frame. 

Designing a living wall

Today, green installations can be seen in every type of building across the world, ranging from simple climbing plants on trellises or on pergola extensions to mixed plant/floral arrangements draped across large building façades. The choice of greenery might depend on the building’s location, its structure, the climate, desired aesthetic, and maintenance requirements. These varying designs and methods offer versatility to architects and designers who can breathe life into urban spaces.  There are many outstanding examples of vertical gardens as can be seen in this photo collection.

Vertical gardens can be placed in a variety of low and high-rise building. The highest green wall in Europe is on the aptly-named Sky Terrace in London on the 75th floor of Landmark Pinnacle. 

The benefits of living walls

Whatever the scale, location, and position of living walls on skyscrapers or in private homes, they have shared goals as well as niche reasons for being commissioned. For sustainable architecture, a major contribution is the environmental benefits that vertical gardens contribute to the built environment. 

The integration of vertical gardens across urban designs, commercial premises, and city residences offers multiple sustainable benefits, improving the health of buildings people work in. For architects, designers, and their clients, the inclusion of living walls can raise their sustainability efforts in multiple ways, such as:

• Purifying air and water - plants in vertical gardens act as natural air filters, removing pollutants and improving overall air quality. They can also help to trap dust, particulates, and other pollutants from the air and rainfall.
  
• Regulating temperature - green walls can reduce wall temperatures by 30-40°F and cut a building’s energy use by 0.7%. Meanwhile, adjustable louvered pergolas create opportunities to control sunlight, warmth, and ventilation with customised screens and heating features.  
• Reducing noise - vegetation can absorb and deflect sound waves, reducing urban noise pollution.
• Protecting people and buildings - living walls prevent degradation from UV light and rain. In addition, if added to roofs, pergolas, and gazebos, they offer vital shade and mitigate sun, sea, and damage from the elements. 
• Serving local fauna – this greenery also provide habitats, food, nesting, and breeding grounds for birds, insects, and other wildlife even in a busy city. 

In measurable ways, discrete solar-mounted panels or ground-mounted systems can be added to vertical roof gardens and living walls from the ground up. Combining living plants to solar installations all help to reduce energy consumption and lower energy costs for commercial and private buildings. In doing so, they enhance the overall wellbeing of occupants.  

A great example is the Santalaia in Bogotá, Colombia. It has an incredible 115,000 plants covering the entire building, all bar its windows. Thanks to its sheer scale, Santalaia is one of the best examples of a living building in a densely populated city of seven million people. This building has the potential to offset the carbon footprint of 700 people, produce enough oxygen for 3,000, and filter out the particulate emissions of 745 cars.

Transforming urban spaces

Alongside the de-urbanisation and green enhancement that vertical gardens can add to industrial designs, they are reshaping and reinvigorating communities, local high streets, public spaces, and commercial enterprises in healthy and unique ways.

Vertical gardens have the power to transform mundane spaces into vibrant, inviting environments, including:

• Transit hubs - train stations and bus stops with vertical gardens create more pleasant waiting areas for commuters. 
  
• Urban squares - freestanding green walls can define and divide public spaces and can have a positive impact on communal spaces. They beautify bland community areas and create inviting green zones, breaking up spaces into flexible spaces.
• Shops - retailers are incorporating living walls into their façade designs, creating eye-catching displays that attract greater footfall. 
• Hospitality - vertical gardens are creating inviting spaces and memorable experiences in cafes, restaurants, hotels and bars. Vertical herb gardens behind bars look appealing and provide fresh ingredients for cocktails, while green walls reinforce dining themes for restaurants with fresh ingredients on tap.
• Offices - employees working in spaces with green walls report higher levels of job satisfaction and reduced stress.

For architects and designers, vertical gardens and living walls are incredibly valuable eco-conscious additions. As well as being integral to biophilic design, they connect buildings and man-made materials with nature to create unique, inspiring, and amazing green spaces. 

Whether they are established in cities or homes, these walls can add healthy greenery to otherwise unnatural, urbanised, and concrete-heavy environments. Vertical walls add sustainable solutions to future-proof homes, balancing nature and practicality to benefit workers, residents, and the wildlife living off the plants in any built environment.