Living Walls

  1. General Overview Of Living Walls
  2. Why Living Walls
  3. Considerations For Building A Living Wall
  4. The Jamieson Place Living Wall
  5. The Winter Garden At Jamieson Place
  6. Alternate Living Wall Systems

General Overview Of Living Walls

Living walls, Green walls, Bio Walls, Vertical Planting



Walls of green plants have been produced by nature for centuries- think of an ivy covered cottage or building. We are now able to recreate these sights indoors with unique designs by using modular panels of plants, planted in soil or a growing medium which then connect together and form a wall. Walls can be simple or complicated in structure, size and design like the amazing, multi award winning, 1900 square foot Living Wall at Jamieson Place here in Calgary.

Why Living walls?

Whether you are trying to conserve energy (heat in winter and cool in summer), filter air particles and improve air quality or merely create a spectacular vision, a Living wall can do it all! You can have a simple palette of one type of plant and one colour of green or create an amazing design with the selection of plant types because of their unique leaf shapes, sizes, texture and colour.

Considerations for a Living Wall

Design:

  • Proper structural support system
  • Lightweight planting medium that will not deteriorate
  • Irrigation and fertilization computerized system
  • Maintenance provisions
  • Plant choices based on lighting
  • Electrical
  • Storage
  • Safety
  • Maintenance Serviceability
  • Surrounding Area

Planting provisions:

  • Proper drainage
  • Planting media
  • Irrigation
  • Water Quality
  • Water temperature and source

Environmental considerations:

  • Lighting-Intensity
  • luminance
  • illumination periods
  • light quality
  • Ventilation-temperature
  • drafts
  • humidity
  • moisture loss

The Winter Garden at Jamieson Place

Chito Pabustan, from Gibbs Gage Architects, Calgary, had a vision for this 25,000 square foot area. It should be a contemplative, restful space. He carried the Frank Lloyd Wright inspired design from the exterior to the interior in the Winter Garden by promoting a visual connection between the user and the passerby through clear glazed glass. Planters with Black Bamboo are centrally located throughout the space.

Planters with Sanseveria Cylindrica border the seating area on the south side. Planters with Sanseveria Laurentii and Swedish Ivy border the north side with a strong visual presence from 3rd Avenue.

The 1900 square foot Living wall anchors the west wall and has created an amazing meeting place for tenants and visitors who enjoy comfortable leather seating facing this force of nature. You will find people whispering or talking softly which proves that the architect's vision was truly successful.

An Award Winning Project!

This project has been recognized by the following awards:
  • PIA (Plantscape Industry Alliance) Award of Excellence, Winter Garden Installation, August 2010, San Diego, California
  • PIA (Plantscape Industry Alliance) Award of Excellence, Living Wall Category, August 2010, San Diego, California
  • PLANET (Professional Landcare Network) Grand Award, Winter Garden Installation, October 2010, Louisville, Kentucky
Puts pics of jo and award and rennie and award here

Alternate Living wall/Green wall Products:

Calgary based company, Dirtt, has created an attractive Living wall product that can be retrofitted onto movable wall systems or other walls. This product is sold through Dirtt representatives throughout North America. We are the vendor of choice for this product in Calgary and have installed 14 walls so far. Here is an interesting installation of a Breathe wall surrounding a Smart Board, created by Smart Technologies, another Calgary company!



This design incorporated one plant type but two varieties to give some contrast. Often supplemental lighting will be required. This terrific wall is installed in the Aspire office of Jayman MasterBuilt. This is a very contemporary office and the wall really creates some buzz when people walk in!



Here is another example of a Dirtt Breathe wall incorporating a wild assortment of plants. It is important to know that if you install flowering plants, they will have changed out regularly which will add to your maintenance costs.

Portable Living Walls

There are now several portable Living Wall products available to us as well. Information on both of these systems will be coming soon. Here is a picture to show you what a portable unit looks like.

Woolly Pocket is a felt product made for more casual and smaller installations. It is lined for interior use and half lined for exterior use and is attached with screws and masonry anchors through grommets. There are many size variations from 24" width to 112" width and can be layered to create a wall of any size.

I think this would be a fun application for a school. Why not donate this system to a school or day care and have the kids involved in the planting. They could even plant vegetables and watch them grow!

Whatever your choice or application, Greenery will be happy to consult with you, your Architect or Interior Designer to choose the right product to work in your space. With the success of the Jamieson Living Wall, Greenery has certainly become an authority on a variety of systems and we have been contacted by people all over the world to discuss the design and installation of Living Walls. Please contact: rennie@greenery.ca to consult on your project.