[Greenbuilding] living wall

[Gennaro Brooks-Church]

I'm a huge admirer of Patrick Blank. He is really a pioneer of the art
and has taken it to an international level.
But despite his genius I think his system is completely flawed and
unsustainable.
At the core of his problem is that he uses almost exclusively
non-native plants. He also uses hydroponics instead of soil.
This requires an entirely artificial biosphere that needs constant
energy or else it will die immediately. You need to constantly feed
the plants with nutrient rich water to recreate the fake environment -
this consumes vast amounts of water, chemicals, monitoring and
electricity. It is fine for a luxury hotel but not good for your
average person who wants the plug and play genius of a native
biosphere.

The tweaking I am looking into is native plants, soil and an abundant
supply of gray water. The gray water is supplied by the inhabitants of
the building and if the inhabitants left the wall would probably die.
But this kind of dependency is a natural one that incorporates humans
into their surroundings - our life naturally feeds the plants just
like the plant life feeds us. We become a team player in the
permaculture of the building as it breathes its cycles.

Gennaro Brooks-Church

Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
www.EcoBrooklyn.com
22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231




On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 2:37 AM, Steve <steve at greengeek.ca> wrote:
> the Cambie Whole Foods Market in Vancouver (510 West 8th Avenue) has
> an excellent green wall system; it uses plastic trays that hold square
> bags of soil with holes cut for the plant stems, and metal braces to
> hold the bags in place. The system has drip irrigation and as of the
> last time I saw it (November), appeared to be thriving. I don't know
> the manufacturer of the system but it's the best external system I've
> seen, and based on it's simplicity should be cheaper than ELT and
> GSky, and far more robust than the Woolly Pockets. It looked similar
> to the Tournesol product, but that wasn't it.
>
> One of the first living wall systems I ever saw was when I was back in
> school, at U of Guelph's Humber campus.. Alan Darlington of Natureaire
> (now Nedlaw) built a 4 storey living wall in the atrium, and we got to
> watch the wall constructed and then maintained over the following
> year. I considered doing my co-op placement at Natureaire, and
> indicated my interest during one time I spoke with Dr. Darlington, but
> shortly after I signed the lease on an apartment in Toronto and they
> were in Guelph so it didn't work out. Overall a fascinating system,
> but very high maintenance.
>
> For indoor green walls, I'm a big fan of the Patrick Blanc style
> system.. simple and very effective. I don't know if I'd try to put one
> outside though... it can be done, but they don't always fare so well,
> especially in a harsh climate. Might work here in Victoria BC though.
>
> -Steve
> --
> http://www.greengeek.ca
>
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