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March 2008
guest feature and
inaugural column for The Green Wall Editor
An Intro to Green
Walls and Green Roofs: Living Architecture at its Best
By George Irwin, Industry CEO and
President
All Photos Courtesy George Irwin
Green Walls Part I: Nomenclature
Since
the days of Babylon, vegetation has been growing on, in or around both
the horizontal and vertical planes of buildings, more specifically the
roofs and walls. The most recent green trends have been including
a variety of what the industry is calling “Green Walls, Living Walls,
and Vegetated Façades,” and we have heard many more names, too.
The green roof movement has naturally evolved to green walls - no pun
intended, but the green roof has now climbed over the parapet and down,
or up the walls.
Designers, architects and engineers now have the possibility of encasing
a building in some type of live vegetation whether for aesthetics,
function or notoriety. This article is the first in a multi part
introduction to “Green Walls” that will define the nomenclature
contributed by the leaders of green wall manufacturers, installers,
designers and architects with support from
Green Roofs for
Healthy Cities (GRHC) and Green Walls 101© (GW 101).
Green roofs have multiple design and material components and so do green
walls. Each project must be addressed with a variety of
application possibilities, limitations, functionality and aesthetics.
In order to understand the potential components relevant to specific
applications we have to define the terminology of “Green Walls.”
The term “Green Wall” is a global term used to reference a variety of
vegetated wall surfaces. Within the term “Green Wall” we have two
specific categories: Green Façades and Living Walls.
• ‘Green Facade’ or facade greening, features a training
structure that supports vines or climbing plants growing upward from the
ground away from the building (GW101, 2008). Green Facades
can now be dissected into two additional categories of product
applications:
• A multidimensional, welded wire trellising system.
• A variety of stainless steel cable and mesh systems.
Both systems support a variety of climbing plant material, can be
customized and some are available in a variety of colors.
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‘Green Facades’
Left: Welded Wire
Trellising System,
Source:
Greenscreen; Right:
Cable and Mesh System, Source:
Jakob |
• ‘Living Wall’ is part of a
building envelope system, comprising pre-vegetated or planted on-site
panels containing plants, growing medium or liquid nutrient installed in
or on a frame, secured to a structural wall or it can be free standing
(GW101, 2008).
Living Walls can also be migrated into two distinct categories:
• Hydroponics wall which uses recirculation water to deliver nutrients
directly to the roots of the plant material.
• Soil or growing media based walls. These walls are made up of a
variety of modules that retain growth media to support plant material.
Recognizing the correct terminology is
the start to deciding on a green wall system. Be warned not all
systems are the same there are pros and cons to each system. Not
all are “Do it yourself” applications, some perform only with a specific
plant type or have a variety of mounting procedures and structural
requirements...and more. For more information contact the
manufacturer.
Green Walls Part II: The New Green Roof?
In case you don’t read the newspaper, watch the news, have internet
access or any other media attention whatsoever, green roofs have proven
themselves over and over again long term to be part of a Best Management
Practice (BMP) in the fight of global warming. Long term data has
proven that Green Roofs, when constructed correctly can:
• Retain and / or slow down a significant amount of stormwater runoff
resulting in less erosion, reduced heavy metals in our water ways...etc…
• Double the life expectancy of a roof membrane
• Add acoustical value
• Regulate a building's internal temp
• Clean the air
And etcetera, etcetera, etcetera…
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The
Marketplace at Oviedo Crossing, Oviedo, FL; System:
Greenscreen |
There is one problem with the green roof
and all its beauty and function...Unless it is yours and you have access
to it, no one else can see the green roof (unless you are in an adjacent
building).
Green Walls, on the other hand, can be a public display of beauty, art,
expression and just as important as green roofs...functional.
Green roofs have long term quantifiable data associated with them.
Without boring you with statistical details, it can be theorized that a
green wall will provide similar or associated benefits. Here is
where the benefits may vary, depending upon the array of systems
available; trellis systems, cable systems, growth media based systems,
or a hydroponic system. With multiple systems come multiple
benefits that may or may not carry from one to another.
A true correlation of green roof related benefits must be under a
similar design. For example, the use of a 3” growing media based
system should have a benefit correlation to a 3” depth green roof with
similar vegetation properties. These same benefits cannot be
expected with a trellis or cable system. However, the facades
(trellis and cable system) can offer a multitude of other benefits not
offered by a soil based system. This is part of the pros and cons
mentioned in Part I. As a designer or architect it is up to you to
decide on the system and its functionality. (Note: As a designer
why not incorporate a multitude of systems in one project?)
The connection to the benefits will rely on the system, we can agree on
that. Specifically speaking, what benefits do all the systems
share? Cosmetics and aesthetics...fact is, when constructed
correctly the green wall applications are very alluring and appealing.
What do aesthetics do for me? As a non environmental benefit we
used the example of the 2,000 square foot Green Living™ Wall for
Anthropologies, a high end retail
store in Alabama, and it attracted additional pedestrian traffic
immediately to the store front - it can only be assumed that the
increase in traffic equates to a rise in internal traffic / shoppers,
increasing revenues for the retailer as a result of the extra attention,
capturing those sales based on an interest in the green wall.
No matter what the system or plant
material, there is a definite attraction to seeing a potpourri of plants
cascading from the vertical heights of what would otherwise be an
orthogonal boxlike structure. Some of the manufacturers have the
ability to custom manufacture specific dimensions, create curvatures,
and are now are incorporating green walls as art both indoors and out -
green walls and green roofs as living architecture!
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Left: MFO
Park in Zurich, Switzerland; Right: National Wildlife
Federation Headquarters in Reston, VA |
Whether you are an interior decorator,
architect, landscape architect or just simply interested, visit
www.greenroofs.org
for more information on attending "Green Walls 101 Introduction to
Systems and Design" in a city near you. You can also visit Green
Living™ Technologies in NYC on April 26-27, 2008 at the
Go Green NY Expo
and on April 29 – May 3rd in Baltimore, MD, at the 2008 Sixth Annual
Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference.
Be sure to visit Greenroofs.com
again for additional Green Wall articles!
George A. Irwin
George Irwin is President and CEO
of Green Living Technologies, LLC
(GLT) which
manufactures and designs Green Living™ Walls and Green Living™ Roofs, in
addition to other Green Living™ Accessories. He is also a trainer for
Green Walls 101. Mr. Irwin lives in Rochester, New York, with his wife,
son and daughter.
Green Living Technologies, LLC: A leader in green wall technology, GLT
is the only soil based green wall manufacturer and designer in the
United States. The standard Green Living™ Wall systems are available as
a 2’ x 2’ x 3“ configuration or as a custom dimension and
depth for both commercial and retail markets, and is also used as an
extreme sloped green roof application. The Green Living™ Roof
system is a modular pre-vegetated or planted in place green roof system.
Contact George Irwin at:
George@AGreenroof.com,
www.agreenroof.com,
or 1.800.631.8001.
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