to deliver optimal benefits beyond the all important financials. Where there is ‘whole system thinking’ in the early stages of planning, numerous synergies can be found, including the use of harvested rainwater to irrigate green walls and also green roofs which are the horizontal cousins of our vertical living green walls. Living walls are particularly suitable for cities, as they allow good use of available vertical surface areas. In fact, looking at London as an example of a relatively ‘green ‘ city visible from an aerial view, there are huge opportunities to create green walls and roofs with each system bringing benefits to the urban eco system. Some are hard benefits like temperature reduction, whilst some are ‘softer’ like reducing airborne dust particles, reducing sound levels, natural shading around windows, creating bio diverse habitat and generally positively impacting on the urban psychology. In this direction lie the Urban Oases that a Babylonian Queen would recognise.
As this is the run up to the 2012 green Olympics, it is worth saying that the Olympic estate includes some very impressive green walls and other green infrastructure which are set to delight the visitors and also the legacy occupants for many years to come and be a model that others can emulate and continuously refine as the glowing future for green walls unfurls itself.
So what about the great failures? There is still controversy about the location of those fabulous Hanging Gardens because they have disappeared - been recycled even. What is the lesson? Clearly it is about developing a robust understanding of how to make and maintain sustainable projects without spending a King’s ransom. In the pioneer days of green walls there were some spectacular failures; often the reasons were not spectacular at all. Just the usual trimming of costs leading to having no personnel available to switch on the irrigation, or switch it off. Or the idea of ‘zero maintenance’, for plants? Yeah right, tell me another. But there is low maintenance rather than no maintenance. That works. As post–pioneers we have developed some really clever technologies that allow highly efficient and reliable irrigation which can carry liquid nutrients, computerised watering plans that vary for each plant zone, moisture sensors that prevent over watering and help to avoid drying, flexible planting schemes, and also telemetry which allows remote monitoring and controlling of the system from anywhere in the internet- ready world. Literally you can be by the pool in Florida and still be in full control of your green wall. Plants living on green walls are having healthier, beautiful longer lives, too.
And the great successes? Underlying these mini sagas there is a sound platform of good technological development beyond using the best of miniaturisation, mobile telephony and the power of the internet. These Living Walls have benefitted from increasing understanding of the importance of getting the micro-ecology right. Affordable and clever components
are continuously arriving on the market with major technology, materials and systems crossing over from commercial agricultural experience and even space and military technological developments – perhaps not quite a green prophetic version of ‘beating swords into ploughshares’ but possibly moving in the right direction. Things have moved beyond the ‘old’ ideas of watering green walls by simply cascading water from above on a timer. Now we have almost intelligent systems with pressure regulated dripline that compensates for the vertical height difference, and low energy pumps that adjust pressure to deliver precisely the right amounts of water and nutrients to the right places at the right times. Water consumption is a fraction of what it was and the systems can be easily monitored to generate alerts in the case of failures. Earlier systems did not have these advantages and relied on expensive and substantial human monitoring which was prone to public holidays and sickness.
And the future? Modern green walls can be found outdoors as green facades screening ugly buildings or sites, and also with fabulous indoor planting schemes in the most upmarket chic stores and airport lounges. The scope and scale is remarkable as are the companies who have been busy designing imaginative and robust green wall systems and developing them to fit into any size, location and budget. Some are pre-grown for commercial projects and arrive onsite as impressive designs like huge green murals. Some homes and offices have smaller versions with herbs, lettuce, and even soft fruit like strawberries growing at picking height providing beauty and function in a single, vertical, space-saving mini garden.
There is also a European (and possibly a World’s) ‘First’ Green Wall Centre created by the team at Watermatic. Set up for researching, testing and developing it is not so much a showroom, but more of an outdoor ‘grow room’ providing real data on wall performance and building the science of which types of wall systems do best in which circumstances. There are eight completely different systems that can be seen via live webcam at www.
watermaticltd.co.uk. If you are interested in Sustainable Water Management including, but not restricted to, green walls there are the Sustainable Water Industry Group (SWIG) Awards calling now for nominations and taking place in November 2011. The Awards are for extraordinary projects combining the practical with the imaginative to deliver projects. Details at
www.sustainablewater.org.uk
One thing I think is for sure, that our homesick Babylonian Queen might have said, seeing our 21st century green walls, that the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World now might be in need of some updating.
ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE |73|
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