International #GreenWallDay, February 15, 2022

As beautiful examples of vertical living architecture, we at Greenroofs.com are happy to collaborate in celebrating International Green Wall Day 2022 with projects from across five continents!

Featured Project: Menara Etiqa Living Wall, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Image: Elmich Pte Ltd.

According to founder Pritchard & Pritchard and marking its second anniversary on February 15, 2022, International Green Wall Day (#GreenWallDay):

“…celebrates and highlights the beauty and environmental benefits of living walls, green walls, vertical gardens and vertical forests.

The date marks the anniversary of the birth of the living wall inventor and visionary landscape architect Stanley Hart White in 1891, over 130 years ago. To take part in Green Wall Day, share on all social media, your living wall videos, images and articles, using the hashtag #GreenWallDay. This will create a useful snapshot of the current global state of play for green walls. Everyone is invited. It is free.” ~ Pritchard & Pritchard

Greenwall Project of the Week: Drexel University, Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building (PISB), Philadelphia, PA. Image: Nedlaw Living Walls

Greenwalls have been especially gaining popularity, partly due to their verticality – we can see, touch, and smell them much more readily than planted rooftops. They are used to reference a variety of vegetated wall surfaces but all have plants grown in supported vertical systems both inside and outdoors.

Featured Project: Real Dos, Lima Peru. Image: ARVE Perú

We’re highlighting some of the very special greenwalls that we have showcased over the years in our Featured Project series ~ and as a refresher, these are the basic varieties of greenwall types from our FAQs:

What kinds of greenwalls are there?

Project of the Week: Cloud Mountain, Cloud Forest Conservatory, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore. Photo courtesy of Tropical Environment Pte Ltd

Within the term Green Wall or Greenwall we have two specific categories: Green Façades and Living Walls, and each have two additional categories of product applications.

Green Façades, also referred to as facade greening, feature a training structure or trellis that is separated from the building which supports vines or climbing plants planted directly in the ground or in planters. Growing upward onto the support system or cascading downwards, plants receive water and nutrients from the earth or container. Both systems support a variety of climbing plants, can be customized, and many are available in a variety of colors. The two types of Green Façades are:

Multidimensional, Welded Wire Trellising Systems

Featured Project: National Wildlife Federation HQ Green Façade, Reston, VA. Image: greenscreen®

Stainless Steel Cable and Mesh Systems

Featured Project: Monad Terrace, Miami Beach, FL. Image: Jakob Rope Systems

Living Walls or vertical gardens are grown within with a structural support and can be either installed/fastened on the face of the wall, becoming part of the building envelope, or a freestanding structure in a growing medium or liquid nutrient. The plants can be either pre-vegetated or planted onsite with modules or large panels, and receive water and nutrients from within the vertical support itself, most commonly via irrigation.

Featured Project: Al Shaheed Park, Kuwait City; GSky greenwall. Image: Video screenshot of “Al Shaheed Park, Kuwait by Eng. Haifa Al Muhanna“

Hydroponic based systems are one type of Living Wall, which is the cultivation of plants in nutrient solution using recirculated water on a structural frame. The roots are embedded into a polyamide felt or similar fabric for the rooting media. A network of pipes controlled by valves provides a nutrient solution containing dissolved minerals needed for plant growth.

Project of the Week: Santalaia, Bogotá, Colombia. Image: Groncol

Famed French botanist Dr. Patrick Blanc invented the Mur Végétal, or hydroponic vertical garden system, with over 250 projects completed across the world:

Project of the Week: Caixa Forum Museum Vertical Garden, Madrid, Spain. Image: Patrick Blanc

Soil or Growing Media based walls utilize flexible modules or planters of various materials and sizes that retain the growth media to support the plant material. They also are attached to a frame structure, sometimes away from the wall to allow air flow.

Greenroofs.com Project of the Week: Phipps Conservatory Production Greenhouse Living Walls. Image: Phipps courtesy of LiveWall

And, the beauty of creative design doesn’t limit us to one type of greenwall or another…case in point, the fantastic One Central Park in Sydney, Australia designed by Jean Nouvel and Patrick Blanc using both hydroponic living walls and green façades of stainless steel cable and mesh systems with planters:

Image: Patrick Blanc

We hope you’ve enjoyed these examples of gorgeous greenwalls showing how we can better our built environment with living plants to purify the air, manage stormwater, provide wildlife habitat, beautify our surroundings, and nourish our bodies – just to name a few benefits – in many different settings.

Happy International #GreenWallDay 2022!

Love the Earth, Plant a Roof (or Wall)!

By Linda S. Velazquez, ASLA, LEED AP, GRP
Greenroofs.com Publisher & Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summits Host