Can a living wall deliver real environmental benefits?
Sourced from 24 Housing
Living walls are springing up in our cities, often on luxury hotels, office blocks, and major stores.
Also called green walls, their benefits include increasing wildlife biodiversity and improving air quality.
The UK Green Building Council has called for all new buildings and infrastructure to include nature-based solutions by 2030 as our cities heat up, and living wall systems can be a part of that vision.
However, critics accuse them of being `marketing greenwash’ due to the carbon emissions created in their construction, usually from steel and concrete, which their benefits can’t neutralise.
Let’s take a closer look at living walls.
What is a living wall?
Following the development of green roofs in the 2000s, living walls first appeared in Germany in the 2010s and spread across Europe. Living wall systems enable walls to be planted vertically with shrubs, flowers, and grasses in soil or using a hydroponic system to keep them watered: they also need materials and manpower to maintain them. While they’re praised for increasing biodiversity, the environmental footprint of a living wall depends on factors including its installation in terms of carbon emissions, the amount of water required, and the drip irrigation system used.
A living wall can contain foliage plants, climbing plants, herbaceous perennials and flowering plants, or a mixture of all these. It’s important to get the plant selection right to suit the chosen living wall system, as this is the best way to ensure healthy plants.
From the Living Architecture Monitor
