The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) is a post-secondary institution in Singapore that provides pre-employment training to secondary school leavers as well as continuing education and training to working adults. It takes in 25% of the annual school-leavers cohort or an overall enrollment of 25,000 students per year. ITE promotes environmental sustainability with an integrated, multi-faceted, forward-looking and dynamic approach. It combines long-term strategic plans with regular ground activities while engaging both the community and innovative commercial enterprises. ITE has incorporated environmental sustainability as one of the key strategic programmes under the new ITE INNOVATE Plan 2010 – 2015, which aims at instilling greater awareness among ITE’s stakeholders, embracing green practices
and developing new competencies for the green economy. ITE College Central and Headquarters is the third comprehensive campus to be built under their “One ITE System, Three Colleges model.

Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education’s College Central has made a bold statement to embrace Singapore’s transformation into a ‘City in a Garden. Green walls up to 35 m (115 feet) high covered the facades of eight campus blocks, together totaling 5,324 sq m (57,307 sq ft), making it the largest vertical greenery installation at a single development in the world. The living walls are part of the college’s “Vertical Greening  An Eco-Initiative drive to be eco-friendly whilst offering a conducive learning environment for its students.

The green walls form visually appealing living barriers that protect the west-facing walls of the campus blocks from the intense tropical sun which can reach temperatures as high as 38.0 °C (100.4 °F) in equatorial Singapore. The living walls substantially reduce ambient temperature, mitigate urban heat island effect and keep the building interiors cool. This in turn reduces energy consumption for air-conditioning therefore, minimizing the carbon footprint of the college. They also improve noise attenuation, an essential element of the learning environment. There will be a provision of Educational Eco Tours for visitors to the campus.

The living walls on the six-storey façades of the eight campus blocks of Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education’s College Central were established using the Elmich VGM Green Wall System, comprising Vertical Greening Modules (VGM) containing a geotextile bag filled with EnviroMix GW, a primarily inorganic soil-less lightweight planting media, anchored onto stainless steel pilasters. The modular VGMs were pre-planted in a controlled nursery environment for selected plants to be firmly established and orientated vertically prior to site installation.

Irrigation and fertilization is supplied by an automated drip system that controls both time and duration for release of water and nutrients. Independently certified, the wall system can withstand wind uplift from various directions at 110km/h. The VGM module system is also versatile enough to accommodate the demanding design requirements of the project.